Tis The Season To Be Awkward
by cherrygorilla
Summary: A collection of rather bizarre images collected over the course of the Wet Side Story Teens' Christmas party leads to a lot of explaining that needs to be done. Can they talk their ways out of this one or is this holiday season not going to be as merry and bright as they'd expected? Disclaimer: Anything that you don't recognise is my own.
1. Prologue

**Hello!**

 **I'm finally here with the first part of my Christmas story! It's just a sort of quick introduction but I wanted to do something like this to set up the story before I get into the main parts of it. Plus, I just wanted to get another chapter up for you. I hate leaving you without content for too long! XD**

 **Speaking of leaving you without content for too long, I might as well just get straight into the story!**

The 21st of December was a rather important date for the residents of the beach. So important, in fact, that Lela had been looking forward to it for weeks. Not only was it just four days away from Christmas itself, but it was also the day of the Wet Side Story characters' infamous Christmas party. It wasn't surprising that no one knew about it though since, you know…their movie's set in summer. But nonetheless, the annual Christmas party was always one of the best events of the year. And this year seemed to be no different. That is, until Giggles went back to look over her photos.

* * *

"I've had so much fun tonight, thanks guys," Lela smiled, gently stroking her new present from Tanner with the back of her hand.

"Hey, we're the ones that should be thanking you," Seacat said, adjusting his arm around CheeChee's shoulders. "You're the one that organised it all."

"I just wanted to do something special for everyone before we all went home for the holidays," Lela explained as Tanner carefully nudged the bundle of white fluff to stop it walking off the biker girl's lap from beside her.

"Well it's definitely been special," Struts grinned up at Lugnut, who was sat half beside – half behind her, before he planted a quick kiss on her forehead.

"Ya can say that again," Butchy slurred as Giggles tried her best to prop him up with her shoulder.

"Anyone want any more cookies?"

"No, I'm stuffed," Lugnut sighed, flopping back in his chair as he declined the waitress' offer, who moved on to another table soon afterwards.

"Tell me about it," Seacat agreed, looking down at his stomach in disgust. "I can't believe I ate so much food. I haven't eaten like that since Thanksgiving."

"Yeah, I haven't eaten like that since Thanksgiving," Rascal echoed, looking up from the Christmas cracker jigsaw that he was trying to piece together with Kiki.

"Thanksgivin' was only like a month ago," Struts said, dipping one of her eyebrows as her gaze flickered between the three boys.

"And your point is?" Lugnut asked. "That doesn't stop me from feelin' like a pig."

"I know, I've just been eating for a month straight. I don't know how I can still move," Seacat said, almost mustering a chuckle but giving up halfway through. To be honest, he just wanted to nap off all the food he had consumed over the course of the evening and this conversation was the only thing keeping me from doing that.

"Oh stop your whinin'," CheeChee drawled, rolling her eyes at her boyfriend before leaning in closer to him. So close that she could feel the rise and fall of his chest on the back of her head. Obviously she hadn't been too annoyed at him.

"You're not helping matters, CheeChee," Kiki piped up with a chuckle. "You're the one that bought him food for a present."

"Ugh," Seacat sighed, teasing CheeChee and earning a light dig to the ribs because of it.

"Along with other things," CheeChee said, defending herself as best as she could. "And Seacat loved his new beach towel and sneakers, thank ya very much," she sniffed, wearing a scowl on her red lip gloss clad lips until she felt a soft kiss on the shoulder.

"Of course I did," Seacat said quietly, his mouth her ear as he moved his head up from her shoulder, making the biker girl's face break into a grin.

"Yeah, and at least Chee didn't buy her date a moggie," Butchy quipped, directly aiming his comment at Tanner, who honestly didn't seem that bothered at all by it. But then again, that's just Tanner being Tanner and seeing the bright side in anything. Besides, he didn't have to do anything because Lela was already there to fight his corner for him.

"Hey, don't call Holly that!" she squeaked, protectively clutching the tiny mass of white fur to her chest.

"Who?" Giggles asked, obviously confused at the mention of the new name.

"Holly, I decided to call her Holly," Lela explained, holding up the little, white kitten, which let out a quiet mewl at the sudden movement.

"Course ya did," Butchy grumbled, quite clearly not too happy about the new addition to the siblings' household.

"Well it's Christmas time, Butchy. What did you expect me to call her? Sandy?" Lela huffed, equally as unhappy as her brother, although it was for virtually the opposite reason.

"I think Holly's cute," Struts piped up, leaning across Lela to scratch the little cat behind its ear.

"Thanks, Struts," Lela smiled, almost instantly distracted by the biker girl's praise.

"Yeah, I got a really good picture of her playing with all the wrapping paper," Giggles added, awkwardly tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as Butchy slung his arm around her shoulders and started stupidly grinning at the side of her face.

"Ooh, can I see it?" Lela exclaimed, her eyes lighting up as she practically jumped out of her seat in excitement.

"Sure," Giggles replied, prising Butchy's arm away from her before squirming out of his grasp and scuttling over to the table where she had laid out all of her photos. Thanks to her boyfriend's present of an insta-print camera, Giggles had been snapping pictures of her friends all night long. After all, she wanted to have as many memories of the evening as possible. But as she bundled them up and started to shuffle through them, her smile sagged into a frown.

"What's wrong, Giggles?" Tanner asked, watching the surfer girl's face fall as she turned back around.

"These pictures don't look…right," Giggles replied, struggling to phrase her sentence without making it sound like she was being rude.

"Whatcha talkin' about?" CheeChee asked nonchalantly, taking out her new nail file (courtesy of Struts' present to her) and well…filing her nails.

"Um...you guys might just want to have a look yourselves," Giggles said nervously, placing the pile of pictures down on the table that her friends were gathered around and then spreading them out in front of them all.

The teens all stood up from their seats and suspiciously peered at the images. But their faces soon changed to those of dismay. These pictures certainly depicted a very different story to the one that they thought had taken place that night.

 **I hope that you liked it!**

 **I know that it's quite short but I didn't intend for it to be too long. I hope that you don't mind too much, it's just like a prologue after all. :) And I know that I hinted at a lot of things throughout this chapter like Lela's Christmas present and Butchy's odd behaviour but they'll be explained further along with the various situations. Don't worry, they all have stories to fit into. :)**

 **I also wanted to say thank you for all of the feedback that I got when I announced this story, I can't believe that it got 12 reviews so quickly! That's amazing, thank you so much! I'm so pleased that you're excited for it! Hopefully I can live up to your expectations then. XD**

 **Speaking of the reviews, I mentioned in the announcement that I would be including a little surprise chapter as well and most of you already guessed what it was going to be! I guess I'm not very good at hiding things. XD And to those of you who asked (you know who you are and you know what question you asked) yes, yes I will. ;)**

 **Oh my goodness! You all really ship Butchy & Giggles, don't you? A pretty big amount of you said that you wanted me to use them as a couple in this story, which I have absolutely no problem with because I've been hardcore shipping them lately (so much actually that I've been coming up with AU one-shot ideas, which isn't very good considering I've stopped doing one-shots now. Why do I have to get inspired by things that I'm not supposed to be concentrating on?!). And also, it didn't really come as a surprise that only one person voted for Coral & Butchy (thank you DerpyWither), I'd kind of picked up the message that everyone kind of hated her with Butchy anyway, or just hated her in general really. XD That isn't good though because she's still in a relationship with him in Reality Check (which I'm going back to after this) but you never know, things could change. ;) (Ooh, spoilers! I've got a lot of drama in store for that fic so I hope that you're ready for it!) But Snow bunny had a pretty cool suggestion for me to put Coral in anyway (don't worry, she's not going to be in it much) just not in a relationship with anyone. She'd just be a background character with a few lines but she wouldn't have a major roll in any of the stories. I don't have to go through with it if it's not a popular idea but I thought that I'd bring it up anyway. What do you think? **

**Also, which couples' awkward picture would you like to see explained first?**

 **Struts & Lugnut?**

 **Lela & Tanner?**

 **Seacat & CheeChee?**

 **Or Butchy & Giggles?**

 **Let me know so I can get started on it as soon as possible!**

 **I think that's all I have to say for now though. Thank you so much for reading!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	2. Mistle-Oh No! (Struts & Lugnut)

**Hello!**

 **So I'm finally here with the first proper part of my Christmas story! I'm so sorry that it's taken me so long to finish it but due to me being super busy finishing things off for Christmas, I haven't had a huge amount of time to write. Hopefully I'll have more time when I get off school on Friday!**

 **Anyway, the idea for this situation was suggested by Owllover34 (who I presume that you have already heard of by now). Since I got two votes for Struts & Lugnut first, that is what this chapter will centre around. However, the action lies elsewhere so it doesn't ruin it too much if you don't ship them. I tried to incorporate both sides though (some romance and some not) just to satisfy everyone. Hopefully you'll understand what I mean when you read it for yourselves, so enjoy!**

After a good few minutes of the friends all puzzling over the images and passing comments on them, Lugnut snatched up one particular picture and thrust it in front of Struts' big, brown eyes.

"What is this?" he demanded as Struts' eyes widened even more and blinked at the photo to make sure that what she was actually looking at was real.

"Uh…oh…that," she awkwardly laughed, plucking the picture from her boyfriend's hands and sliding it onto the table, face down.

"Care to explain?" Lugnut asked, his face stony as his eyes moved from Struts to Seacat.

When the biker boy made eye contact with Seacat, he realised all too quickly what the image captured on that piece of card must have been. But instead of turning on Lugnut to defend himself, he shot Giggles a look of dismay. "Really? Out of all the things to take pictures of, you took one of that?" he asked as the blonde surfer girl squirmed under his stare.

"Well I wanted to take a picture of Struts, it's not my fault that you were messing around with Rascal and ruined my shot," Giggles huffed, not finding it fair that she was being held responsible for her friends' stupid behaviour.

"What are you all fussing about anyway?" Lela asked, leaning across the table to pick up the photo. Struts tried to snatch it from her to save herself from more embarrassment but Lela and Tanner were already frowning at the picture by the time that she'd moved.

"Oh…" Tanner trailed off, his eyebrows creasing together as he strained to work out what on earth was going on in the picture. "What happened for this to…happen?" he asked, realising halfway through his sentence that it didn't really make that much sense. But he went along with it anyway.

"I'd like to know too," Lugnut agreed, his face set in an unimpressed scowl.

"Same here," CheeChee added, raising her hand as she glowered at Seacat. "I'd like to know what possessed ya to think this was ok."

"It was Rascal's idea, not mine," Seacat said, trying to take some of the blame away from him even though it did seem like it was all his doing.

"Wait, where did that hat come from?" Lela asked, holding the photo out in front of her to make sure that she wasn't mistaking the Santa hat for something else.

"Oh yeah," Butchy mumbled as he stood beside his sister and peered over her shoulder at the picture in her hands.

In case you were wondering what the image that had caused such a stir actually showed then wait no further. Under a bundle of mistletoe, tied up with some red ribbon and strung above the entrance to Big Momma's, was unmistakeably Struts and Seacat, who had a Father Christmas hat perched on top of his mass of curls. But the position that they were in was the one that had managed to send their friends into a fluster. Seacat was planting a kiss on Struts' cheek and the biker girl's eyes had flown open and were darting to the side, obviously surprised that this encounter was taking place.

"So are ya gonna explain this or not?" CheeChee asked impatiently, tapping her black, heeled boot on the wooden floorboards.

Seacat shot a look across to Struts, who just looked expectantly at him, obviously not seeing it her place to explain the events. She anxiously played with the end of her hair as Seacat's eyebrows knitted together in thought. "You might want to take this one, Struts. I don't know half of what happened," he admitted.

"Well you're the one kissin' her," CheeChee shot back, clearly unimpressed with her significant other's actions.

"Fine, we can both explain it," Struts gave in, tightening her jaw and nervously perching on the edge of her seat. Her friends all quickly returned to their chairs, apart from Seacat who awkwardly moved to sit beside the biker girl. Everyone's gazes fixed on the pair and Struts finally began to speak.

 _"Who the hell keeps playing Jingle Bells? I swear it's been on like twelve times already," Butchy yelled as the song started blaring from the jukebox speakers yet again._

 _"One for every day of Christmas?" Lela asked, quirking one of her eyebrows as she sidled up beside her brother with a smug smile playing at her lips._

 _"If you put that song on next I'm going to physically shove a mince pie in your face, Lela," Butchy sighed before Giggles ran up behind him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek._

 _"Thanks, Giggles, he really needed that," Struts chuckled, walking over to the small group of friends with a bright smile on her face._

 _"Nice jumper, Struts," Butchy scoffed, eyeing up the knitted Christmas pudding adorning her red jumper._

 _"Oh don't worry, we picked up one for you too," Struts smirked, crossing her arms over her chest as Giggles produced a navy blue jumper with a heavily decorated Christmas tree sprawled across the front of it._

 _"Great," Butchy sighed, forcing a false smile onto his face as he reluctantly took the jumper from Giggles, who just beamed at him and let a small laugh pass her lips._

 _Lela rolled her eyes at the couple but was very quickly distracted by Tanner excitedly babbling to her and then dragging her onto the dancefloor, so Struts was just left alone to be Butchy and Giggles' third wheel. Much to her relief, an arm wrapped around her waist from behind and a chin sat down on her shoulder._

 _"I was wondering when you were going to show up," Struts teased, instantly recognising the touch of her boyfriend._

 _"Well did you want to see me looking presentable or like a family of partridges had decided to nest in my hair?" Lugnut asked, spinning Struts around to face him._

 _"I wouldn't have minded either way," Struts said, delicately lacing her fingers through the biker boy's perfectly styled hair before pecking him on the lips._

 _"So, what have I missed?" Lugnut asked, straightening back up so that he didn't accidentally end up dumping the contents of his plate of party food down Struts' back._

 _"Not much really," Struts admitted, selecting a mini quiche up from her boyfriend's plate and starting to pick at the crust while she spoke. "Butchy's been forced to wear a Christmas jumper, Big Momma had a tiny meltdown 'cause she thought that she'd forgotten to make a cheese fondue and apparently someone finds continuously playing Jingle Bells on the juke box funny."_

 _"Sounds like a swell party," Lugnut said sarcastically, handing his plate to Struts before shrugging off his leather jacket and laying it over the back of a chair. It may be December but it still felt like the middle of summer inside the popular beach hangout spot. Everyone wearing thick, ugly Christmas sweaters didn't really help matters though. And Lugnut's black and white snowman jumper was right up there with the ugliest of them all...in a good way of course._

 _"Oh it's not that bad," Struts said, passing the plate of food back to the biker boy before lightly whacking him on the arm._

 _"I have somethin' that might make it better though," Lugnut said with a smug smile, pulling a long, slender, partially wrapped box from his back pocket._

 _"Ooh, let me get yours," Struts squealed, her heart leaping in excitement as she scurried over to the Christmas tree set up in the corner of the room to retrieve her present for Lugnut from underneath its branches. But she cringed when she picked it up. Struts wasn't the best gift wrapper, unlike Lela and Giggles who prided themselves in their perfectly wrapped presents, and it definitely showed with the monstrosity that she had tried so hard to forget about since she'd left it under the Christmas tree upon arrival that evening. There was an odd lump of green, stocking-covered wrapping paper sticking out from the side of the package, the rest was horribly crinkled and more tape was on view than paper itself. "Sorry about the wrapping," Struts blushed, handing her boyfriend the parcel in disgrace once she'd trudged back over to him._

 _"Ditto," Lugnut awkwardly chuckled, giving Struts the half wrapped box with equal embarrassment. The red, snowflake littered wrapping paper had huge gaps in it, there was tape hanging off the edges and he had not-so-strategically placed a bow on top to try and cover up a huge tear. At least both of them were terrible gift-wrappers, it didn't look as bad then._

 _"You go first," Struts prompted, anxious to find out what kind of reaction she would be met with when Lugnut opened his present._

 _"Same time," Lugnut compromised, sharing the same anxiety as Struts when it came to giving gifts._

 _"Ok," Struts nodded, locking eye contact with her boyfriend as they both took a deep breath. Their gaze was broken almost immediately afterwards as their eyes ripped away from each other to focus on tearing off the paper. The only time that their gazes met each other's again was after the gasps and initial shock of discovering their new possessions._

 _"This is amazin'!" Lugnut marvelled, holding the brand new leather jacket up by the shoulders. "And ya even stitched the Rodents' symbol on the back."_

 _"Yeah," Struts smiled shyly, feeling herself blushing under Lugnut's beaming grin. "Do you like it then?"_

 _"'Course! How'd ya know I wanted a new jacket?" he asked, playing with the soft, leather with his thumb._

 _"Well you've been complainin' about your old one for months," Struts chuckled, grabbing her boyfriend's other jacket from the back of a nearby chair and holding it up. "Plus, this isn't exactly ideal, is it?" she asked, raising one of her eyebrows as she managed to squeeze her whole hand through a hole in the armpit of the jacket._

 _"No," Lugnut chuckled, joining in with the light laughter before Struts tossed the jacket to the side and clutched the thin, black box to her chest._

 _"And this is beautiful," Struts exclaimed, prising open the box and letting her eyes run over the glistening, pink gem stone for the fourth time already._

 _"Ya like it?" Lugnut asked, his smile broadening yet again, if that was even possible._

 _"Is 'it's beautiful' not enough of a clue?" Struts giggled, handing her boyfriend the box with a smirk._

 _He gladly took the box and carefully removed the pendant as Struts pushed her loose chestnut curls over the front of her shoulder, tucking the wisps of hair that wouldn't cooperate behind her ear. The pendant dangled in front of Struts' eyes, casting dancing pink lights across her face before Lugnut lowered it around her neck and clasped it at the back._

 _"Wait, is this bubble gum pink?" Struts asked, squinting at the jewelled heart as she brought it up to her eyes._

 _"Yeah," Lugnut admitted sheepishly, silently praying that he'd made the right choice on colour. Struts was very picky when it came to jewellery, so if he'd gotten this wrong then he'd no doubt be tearing his room apart tonight searching for the receipt to return it. "Bubble gum's like your thing so I thought…"_

 _Struts spun around to face the biker boy and pressed a finger to his lips to shut him up. "You thought right, it's perfect," she grinned, looping her free arm around his neck._

 _"Good," Lugnut chuckled, letting out a sigh of relief between his breathy laughs._

 _"How is it that someone so tough can produce such a thoughtful present?" Struts teased, rocking forward on the balls of her fuchsia pink stilettos._

 _"I don't know, maybe it's his stupid girlfriend rubbin' off on him," Lugnut suggested, playing along with Struts' game as he jokingly rolled his eyes and slipped his arm around Struts' waist._

 _"Hey, you don't think I'm stupid," Struts frowned, lightly clipping Lugnut around the back of the head in mock anger._

 _"'Course I don't," Lugnut chuckled, planting a quick kiss on Struts' forehead before pulling away from her and grabbing his plate of food that had somehow ended up on a nearby table. "Now would ya please excuse me? Someone's eaten my mini quiche," he continued, shooting the biker girl a look of mock-anger, to which she merely responded with a shrug and a stifled grin before going to wipe a crumb from said quiche away from the corner of her mouth._

 _So with Lugnut gone, Struts climbed the steps up to the entrance of the restaurant and leant against one of the tinsel covered columns once she reached the top. Her eyes skittered from the group of surfers that were being made to sing acapella Christmas songs until the juke box started working again (which had apparently gotten stuck from rewinding back to Jingle Bells so many times) to Lela, who was practically strangling Tanner as she hugged him, and finally to a suspicious looking group of bikers that were hovering around the drinks table and starting to look a little bit more merry than what the non-alcoholic fruit punch would have allowed. But she'd have to investigate that later because before she knew what was happening, someone mumbled a "sorry for this in advance," and then a pair of lips were being pressed against her cheek. A pair of lips that definitely didn't belong to Lugnut because she was watching him try to put all of the sausage rolls back onto the plate that he had knocked them off before anyone noticed. So who on earth was it?_

 _After plucking up the courage to look to her side, her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and her face scrunched up in shell-shock. What the hell did Seacat think that he was doing?!_

 _Although the kiss felt like it dragged on for hours for Struts, it barely lasted a second. Seacat almost instantly drew back and placed both of his hands on Struts' shoulders, turning her to face him rather abruptly. "I am so sorry," he muttered, shaking his head as he heard Rascal laughing behind him._

 _"What was that for?" Struts hissed, her eyebrows furrowed so far that they were a millimetre away from becoming a uni-brow._

 _"It was a dare," Seacat sighed in defeat, realising now how stupid it sounded._

 _"What kind of a dare is that?!" Struts pressed, attempting to shove Seacat away from her._

 _Seacat didn't even try to say anything to explain himself; he just sheepishly mumbled something and pointed above them both. And that's when Struts noticed the bunch of mistletoe above them._

 _"Oh…" Struts trailed off, feeling herself starting to flush red as well. Their awkward silence was accompanied by the taunts and chuckles of a group of surfer boys, who were stood a few feet behind Seacat and had obviously seen the dare go down. Their kissy faces and catcalls just made Struts even more humiliated, yet oddly angry. Apparently taking advantage of her was funny now. So she just sent them a dirty look, shot Seacat a quick sympathetic one (because he would no doubt get teased a lot more than she would about this tonight) and then stormed off to find Lugnut again. She tried her best to put the scenario to the back of her mind as she dragged Lugnut over to jive with her to the surfers' a Capella rendition of Run, Run Rudolph and by the time that their legs were aching as they swayed to their cover of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, she'd forgotten all about it...that is, until she'd been reminded of it by Giggles' picture._

"So it wasn't our fault really," Struts finished, anxiously fiddling with her hands as she snuck glances at Lugnut to see what he was making of all this.

"Well not yours, Struts. You're not the one that kissed someone," CheeChee said, still shooting daggers at Seacat, who just rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment and refused to make eye contact.

"Give him a break, Chee. It was a dare," Tanner said, having been on the wrong end of a number of the surfers' dares over his lifetime. "It didn't mean anything."

"Well I for one would like to hear where this dare came from," Lugnut piped up, frowning at Seacat for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Me too. I like this idea," CheeChee agreed, a smug smile curling her lips as Seacat rolled his eyes.

"Well I'd barely gotten through the door with you when this happened," Seacat started, shooting a disapproving look at CheeChee before launching into his explanation.

 _"I bet you three French hens that you're not going to kiss the first girl that you see under the mistletoe," Rascal challenged, having cornered Seacat not even five minutes after he'd arrived at the party. It wasn't until several minutes later that Seacat discovered he'd been forced into a game of 'Christmas truth or dare'._

 _"And where do you suppose you're going to get three French hens from?" Seacat asked, trying to hide his chuckle with a bored tone, hoping that if Rascal thought that he wasn't interested then he'd drop the game._

 _"France," Rascal answered simply._

 _"Well done," Seacat said sarcastically. "We have a genius among us."_

 _"I'll throw in two turtle doves," Rascal suggested._

 _"No."_

 _"Four calling birds?"_

 _"Throw in a partridge in a pear tree and it's a deal," Seacat smirked, not being able to hide his smile any longer. Stupid things like this were the things that cracked him up._

 _"You are so on," Rascal chuckled._

 _"Only if you can get me those birds by the end of the night," Seacat challenged._

 _"Easy," Rascal said, prompting the boys to start laughing at their own stupid inside jokes._

 _"Well you've got a deal then," Seacat chuckled, bumping shoulders with the surfer boy as they walked side by side._

 _"And you've got a girl to kiss," Rascal smirked, putting a hand on his back and shoving him towards the entrance, where the mistletoe was hung. "There's one now."_

 _"Woah, woah, woah," Seacat back-tracked, laying eyes on Struts beneath the mistletoe and almost instantly drawing back. "You said I had to kiss 'a girl' under the mistletoe, can't I just go and get CheeChee?"_

 _"I said 'the first girl'," Rascal corrected. "And Struts is right there."_

 _"No way," Seacat shot back. "I'm not kissing a girl who's already in a relationship. Unlike you, I have a girlfriend."_

 _"Hey, I thought we made a pact not to make jokes about me being single tonight," Rascal cut in, shooting his friend a look of disapproval._

 _"First of all, it wasn't a joke. And second, I'm just not going to go behind Chee's back like that," Seacat said, rather surprised that Rascal was suggesting such a thing._

 _"She won't know," Rascal tried._

 _"Of course she'll know, she's going to find out one way or another," Seacat exclaimed, becoming frantic now. "And Struts is like her best friend, I can't do that to her!"_

 _"We had a deal."_

 _"Yeah, involving imaginary birds."_

 _"Dude, just do it," Rascal pushed. "I'll accept a kiss on the cheek."_

 _"Ugh, you owe me big time, I need at least eight maids a milking for this," Seacat huffed, giving in and speed-walking over to Struts. He uttered a quick apology, did the deed and apologised yet again, more for his own benefit than hers because he felt so guilty. Rascal was not getting away with this lightly, especially since he had gathered a group of surfer boys to watch the kiss go down. There go his plans for an embarrassment-free night._

"So it wasn't my idea," Seacat announced, his gaze moving from Rascal to CheeChee, who he found was also staring at Rascal. And she didn't look too pleased with him.

"Yeah, it was this weasel's," CheeChee snapped, standing up and flinging herself at the surfer boy, who was still trying to piece together the toy puzzle. Everyone jumped up almost immediately to try to calm CheeChee down and pull her away from her task of clawing Rascal's eyes out. But apparently CheeChee's outburst had progressed to her turning on Struts as well for 'accepting the kiss', which is when Lugnut jumped in to defend her. This, however, was not a good idea because as soon as Seacat tried to contribute to sticking up for Struts, Lugnut flew at him. There was a lot of coaxing, apologies and repeated explanations until everyone had calmed down again, but the one thing that finally managed to make the teens drop the other story was the prospect of a new one. Who would have thought that all of the action could be stopped by another peculiar image.

 **I really hope that you enjoyed it!**

 **Hopefully you enjoyed the Struts & Lugnut chapter (even though it involved Seacat too) and I hope that I did your idea justice Owllover34! **

**Let me know who you want to hear about next too! The options left are:**

 **Lela & Tanner**

 **Seacat & CheeChee **

**Or Butchy & Giggles. Vote away! **

**Also, I mentioned last chapter about possibly including Coral as a background character in the story but no one really said anything about it so I haven't included her yet. I do have an idea for her if you do choose for me to include her but if she's not popular (which I already kind of know that she isn't) then I'll just drop it. :)**

 **I had an idea that I'd ask you a Christmas-themed question with every chapter because I thought that it would be fun. So, the first question is: What is your favourite Christmas song? Mine would have to be Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Michael Buble or Darlene Love because it instantly gets me feeling excited and festive and I just love it! What about you? Let me know because I might try to fit some of them into later chapters!**

 **I hope that you don't mind but I'd also just like to ask a quick question about Just Like Me. I know you might not read that story but I wanted to know if anyone was still interested in it. It had some pretty good feedback at first but now it doesn't get as much anymore and it takes up a lot of my evenings (when I should be sleeping really but sshhh...) writing for it, so if no one's really bothered anymore then I can just drop it and actually get some sleep. XD**

 **Anyway, I need to stop rambling. Someone needs to teach me how to shut up! XD I'll let you go now. Please leave a review letting me know what you thought about it because I love to hear your opinions! It's literally my favourite thing in the world to read through the reviews. XD**

 **Thank you so much for reading!**


	3. Racing Snow-Kittens (Lela & Tanner)

**Hello!**

 **Sorry for the huge gap between now and my last chapter, I've just had a really hectic last week at school. What with carol services, my little brother's Christmas play and the disastrous pantomime performances, I haven't really had that much time to write. But hopefully I can get the remaining chapters done over the next few days now that I'm on my Christmas break! Wish me luck because I'm going to need it! XD**

 **Anyway, you came here for a story, not to read about my boring life. Lela and Tanner was the most popular couple for me to write about next so here is their part of the story!**

"Woah, woah, woah, wait a second," Giggles piped up, getting distracted extremely quickly from the argument by another image that she had laid across the table. "What on earth is happening here?"

"Where?" Tanner asked, his head popping up over Giggles' shoulder to peer at the picture.

"Here," Giggles repeated, pointing to the particular image before isolating it from the rest by sliding it towards her.

"Oh yeah," Tanner laughed awkwardly, trying to play it off cool but failing miserably.

"What is it?" Seacat asked, turning towards the two surfers along with a few of the others.

"Hey, don't you be gettin' distracted!" CheeChee barked, grabbing Seacat by the elbow and pulling him back to face her.

"Come on, Chee. Can't we drop this now?" Struts pleaded, having grown tired of the subject very quickly and wanting to move on.

"Ugh," was all that CheeChee replied with, but she did wander over to the table of pictures to see what the new piece of drama was all about.

"What's Holly doing?" Giggles asked, peering at a streak of white, which she assumed was Lela's new kitten, and scrunching up her nose.

"I knew getting' that cat was a stupid idea," Butchy chipped in, his words still running into one another like they had been doing since around 8pm, or whenever he discovered Aval's contribution to the buffet table. "What's it done now?"

"Well it looks like it's attacking Kiki but-" Seacat began, before Lela jumped into the conversation.

"Butchy, I swear if you say one more thing about this kitten then you're sleeping in the garage tonight."

"Fine by me," Butchy grinned, knowing that he was winding Lela up even more.

"Oh shut up you," Lela grumbled, shooting her brother a dirty look as she clasped the little kitten to her chest even tighter. "You should try drinking water for a change."

That shut the biker boy up. But it raised a few chuckles and suppressed gasps from the others.

"I'm sure it's not as bad as it looks though, right guys?" Giggles prompted, hoping that another of her photos wouldn't end in a shouting match.

"What's not bad?" Tanner asked, obviously not having caught on yet.

"The story behind the picture," Giggles explained.

"Of course it's not," Lela replied with an air of confidence.

"I think we'll be the judge of that," Struts said, subtly encouraging Lela to tell everyone this story of how Kiki got mauled by the innocent white kitten.

"Ok then…" Lela trailed off, sinking back into her chair and starting to protectively run her hand down the Holly's furry back. And that's when the next explanation began.

 _Since Lela had pretty much been heading the planning committee for the Christmas party, she was one of the first few to arrive. And because she and Tanner were pretty much inseparable, Tanner showed up not long later. Now, what you are about to witness is exactly how Lela and Tanner greeted each other every day. Prepare yourself; I don't think that you're ready for this._

 _"Nice job with hanging that wreath, Vicky," Lela praised, smiling as she passed the biker girl who was trying to attach the mass of pine needles to the front door._

 _Speaking of the front door, barely ten seconds later, whilst Lela was discussing correct tinsel placement with Kiki, Tanner slipped through the door and ran over to her._

 _"Guess who's here for their daily fix of hugs and kisses?" Tanner asked, instantly making Lela spin around and practically jump into his arms._

 _"You?" Lela giggled, locking her arms around Tanner's neck as she let her feet lift from the floor._

 _"How did you know?" Tanner chuckled, spinning the raven-haired girl around before setting her red-booted feet back onto the floorboards and quickly pecking her on the lips._

 _"I have my ways," Lela said softly, a smile now permanently curling her lips thanks to the presence of her boyfriend._

 _And they went through that process every day. Now, back to the actual story, which I'm sure is what you came here to read about. I doubt anyone is terribly interested in Lela and Tanner's mannerisms as a couple, well apart from Lela and Tanner themselves._

 _"This looks amazing," Tanner continued, gazing around the beach hangout spot that had been transformed into a Christmas wonderland._

 _"You think so?" Lela asked, taking a second to admire her work as Tanner slipped his arm around her waist._

 _"Of course," Tanner grinned, feeling genuinely proud of his girlfriend's efforts._

 _"Ooh, I've got something for you," Lela gasped, wriggling out of Tanner's grip before scurrying over to where she had left a neatly folded woollen jumper._

 _"You didn't have to get me a present," Tanner teased as Lela made her way back over to him._

 _"Oh this isn't your actual present; I'll give that to you later. I just thought that it would be nice for you to wear this now," Lela replied, handing Tanner the square of wool and expectantly waiting for his reaction._

 _"I love it," Tanner chuckled, holding the Christmas jumper, which resembled Father Christmas' jacket, out in front of him._

 _"I thought that it would look cute with my dress," Lela said shyly, gently swishing the woolly skirt of her Mrs Christmas-style dress._

 _"Well you thought right," Tanner grinned, quickly slipping off his shirt in favour of the festive jumper. "Did you knit this one too?" he asked, having been hearing about Lela's progress on her homemade Christmas jumper-turned-dress for the past three weeks or so._

 _"Yeah," the biker girl bashfully admitted as a soft glow of red flushed across her cheeks._

 _"Oh my gosh, you're so talented," Tanner marvelled, looking down at his perfectly knitted jumper in amazement, to which Lela replied with a coy smile and giggle. But the flirtatious laughter didn't last long because as Lela let her eyes scan the room again, she managed to count at least nine bunches of mistletoe dotted around the room. That was definitely not what she had told the surfer girl she had assigned the 'mistletoe job' to do. It was strictly restricted to one bundle, she didn't need people randomly kissing wherever they stepped._

 _"Would you excuse me, please?" Lela asked, determined to get to the bottom of this problem before it got even more out of hand. "I think someone's taken the decorating a little bit out of hand."_

 _"Who?" Tanner asked, his curiosity getting the better of him as he trailed after the biker girl._

 _"Coral," Lela sighed, both addressing the surfer girl, who was balancing on one foot, on her tiptoes on top of a set of step ladders to pin up yet another bunch of mistletoe (very safe idea), and answering Tanner's question at the same time. "What's with all of the mistletoe?"_

 _"Well I've got to get a boy to kiss me somehow," the surfer girl replied as she looked over her shoulder at her 'Christmas party boss'._

 _"And this is the best way of going about it?" Lela asked, raising one of her eyebrows at the girl as she crossed her arms across her chest._

 _"I've tried everything else," Coral replied simply, going back to pinning up the bundle of berries and leaves. "You should try being single at Christmas, it's not exactly fun, especially when you're practically surrounded by couples," she grumbled, overbalancing and almost tumbling off the set of step ladders._

 _"Well I'd really appreciate it if you tried a different way to get a boyfriend, a way that doesn't involve excessive decorating," Lela tried, hoping that the admittedly very ditzy surfer girl wouldn't be too hard to persuade._

 _"Oh, fine," Coral sighed, reluctantly removing the mistletoe from the rafters before climbing back down the steps._

 _"And can you take down the others too?" Lela pushed, trying to milk the fact that she had gotten her way._

 _"And maybe smile a bit?" Tanner added, poking fun at his sister's bad mood as she walked over to him._

 _"Yeah, I'll leave the one above the front door though," Coral compromised, plastering a big, false grin on her face whilst sneaking a plastic red headband from the decorations table as she walked past it._

 _"Thank you!" Lela called to the retreating surfer girl, lightly jabbing Tanner on the arm for teasing his sibling._

"Oh, so that's where Coral's 'boy magnet' headband came from," Seacat piped up, glancing across at one of the tables and seeing the item in question abandoned there. This 'boy magnet' headband was basically just the red plastic headband that the surfer girl had snagged with a pipe-cleaner stuck to the top. One of the left over bunches of mistletoe was tied to the end of the pipe-cleaner so that it would hang in front of the wearer's face. This magical contraption is what Coral had called 'fool-proof' and was 'guaranteed to get her at least one kiss from a boy'.

"Yes," Lela sighed, trying not to be too irritated about the fact that Seacat had interrupted her story.

"Well it seems to have worked for her," Giggles commented, looking across at a nearby booth where the surfer girl in question was snuggled up sharing a hot chocolate with a frankly, very handsome surfer boy. She certainly looked a lot happier now.

"Yeah, I set her up singing Christmas carols with a few of the others to keep her busy and she's been mooning at Finn ever since," Tanner said, not seeming fazed at all that the conversation had taken a totally different turn.

"Look, this ain't explainin' why that cat is terrorisin' Kiki," Butchy chipped in, already getting bored of his sister's story.

"Well if you'd let me get back to it then maybe you'd find out," Lela said, the tiniest hint of a snap in her voice to show that she was being serious. Everyone received the message after that and fell quiet, which is when Lela gratefully continued her explanation.

 _Whilst Lela was distracted with talking to her brother and his girlfriend, Tanner had slipped back out of the restaurant to collect Lela's present from his house. So when Tanner returned with a big, neatly wrapped box, Lela's eyes lit up._

 _"Ooh!" she squealed, dodging past the ever-growing crowds of guests as she ran over to the surfer boy. "What's this?"_

 _"Your gift, silly," Tanner chuckled, not being able to help but smile at Lela's childlike excitement as he carefully handed her the box._

 _"What's inside?" Lela asked, lifting the box up to her ear and moving to shake it._

 _"Don't shake it!" Tanner cut in, practically jumping out of his skin at the very thought._

 _"Oh, alright," Lela said, sheepish and embarrassed that she had even suggested doing such a thing even though she didn't fully understand why. "Can I open it now?" she asked, her eyes now practically glued to the box in curiosity._

 _"Of course, that's what presents are for, right?" Tanner replied with another chuckle. "You've been talking about these for a while now so I wanted to get you one of your own," he added, giving Lela a few clues before she actually lifted up the lid._

 _"Oh, Tanner, those coats I was showing you are far too expensive, you really shouldn't have gotten me one," Lela gasped, her face a picture of dismay as she looked up from the box to her boyfriend. She hadn't even opened it yet she apparently already knew what was inside._

 _"Well that's good because I didn't," Tanner awkwardly laughed, starting to panic that he'd misread the signs and had gotten Lela a gift that she would hate._

 _"Oh, so what did you get me?" Lela asked, her dismay changing to puzzlement in mere seconds._

 _"Take a look," Tanner prompted, silently praying that this would go the way that he intended it to. And since Lela and Tanner were the leads in a picture-perfect musical movie it went exactly like he hoped that it would._

 _"Oh Tanner!" Lela practically screamed as she gently set the box down on a nearby table. "This is so much better than a coat!" she cried, as a tiny meow echoed from the box. "How did you do this?"_

 _"What, do you mean put the kitten in the box?" Tanner asked as he watched Lela lift the wriggling bundle of white fluff into her arms._

 _"No, how did you get me this as a present?" Lela clarified, still not completely sure if she was making sense. But she was so infatuated with the cat that she no longer cared._

 _"Well I picked her out from the shelter about a week ago and she's been living with me up until now," Tanner explained before Lela cut in._

 _"It's a girl?!"_

 _"Would I get you anything else?" Tanner laughed._

 _"Oh my goodness, I love it even more now!" Lela cried, not daring to take her eyes off the snow-coloured kitten in case it disappeared and turned out to be a dream._

 _"You can come by later and pick up her stuff if you want to. She hasn't got that much because I thought that I'd leave you to pick things out but she's got a bed and some food and a few toys, just enough to keep her going up until now," Tanner added, his face the picture of happiness as he watched Lela's smile grow bigger by the second._

 _"Tanner, this is probably the sweetest gift anyone has ever given me!" Lela exclaimed, overcome with joy as she stepped over to her boyfriend with her grin so wide that it practically touched her eyes. "Thank you," she said, a little calmer this time as she pulled the surfer boy towards her and let her lips melt onto his._

 _The couple could have stayed there for hours, stealing kisses and fawning over the new kitten (which Lela very quickly decided to call Holly to stay appropriate with the festive season) but apparently their friends thought otherwise._

 _"Hey, guys, we need two more people for our race so we thought that maybe you'd like to join," Kiki grinned, bounding up to the pair so quickly that the piece of tinsel that she had tied around the top half of her hair (that had been tied into a ponytail) was bouncing up and down._

 _"A race? How can you have a race in here?" Lela asked, still clutching the cat to her chest._

 _"Ooh, a kitten!" Kiki squealed, getting distracted a little too easily._

 _"Yeah, Tanner got me it," Lela said, fondly scratching the fur behind the cat's ear. She knew from that second onwards that she would be hearing and repeating this same conversation all night._

 _"It's adorable!" Kiki cooed, bending down so that she was face to face with the tiny feline._

 _"Anyway, back to the race," Lela prompted, not want Holly (as adorable as she was) to get in the way of the party's festivities._

 _"Oh, yeah, sorry," Kiki giggled, dropping the matter of the cat in favour of her game. "We got these crackers that have clockwork snowmen inside that you're supposed to race and we have two crackers left so..." she trailed off, bringing two gold and red cardboard crackers out from behind her back as she looked hopefully at the couple._

 _"Of course we'll join in!" Lela exclaimed, gratefully taking the two crackers from Kiki before holding one out to Tanner. "Shall we?" she asked, quirking one of her eyebrows._

 _"We shall," Tanner replied with a grin, grabbing on to one end of the cardboard tube. And with that, both teens pulled their respective ends of the cracker until a bang sounded above the hum of chatter and music. Apparently the effort to pull the cracker apart had been a little too great because the couple watched in dismay as the plastic wind-up snowman skidded across the floor and underneath the swing-door to the kitchen. There was no getting that back now._

 _"We'll just both bet on this one," Lela laughed, handing Tanner the other cracker and hoping for the best._

 _Once the snowman had been retrieved from the cracker and the terrible joke had been read aloud and booed at, Tanner and Lela walked over to the table of surfers and bikers with their pink bobble hat wearing snowman toy._

 _"Yay, you're here," Shelley grinned at the approaching couple, glad to see another fellow surfer._

 _"What happened to the other snowman?" Kiki asked, only spotting one white plastic ball._

 _"Oh, yeah, we kind of lost it," Tanner awkwardly admitted, giving a sheepish laugh as he sat down at the table with Lela._

 _"Oh, ok then," Shelley said, not really knowing what to make of this new information._

 _"Ooh, a kitten!" Vicky squealed, the biker girl quickly noticing the bundle of white fluff in Lela's arms._

 _"Yeah, yeah, it was a present from Tanner," Lela explained, already getting bored of the reaction that she had received twice so far._

 _"Look, are we going to start this race or not? I've got to get back to singing Christmas carols," Finn piped up, setting his blue-hatted snowman onto the cardboard race track on the table._

 _"Ok Mr Popular," Shelley scoffed. "It's not like you're that highly in demand," she added, glancing over at the rest of the Christmas carollers to see that they were coping just fine without him._

 _"No, Finn's right, we can't just sit here all night," Kiki said, thinking rationally. "Let's just get on with it so you can all watch mine win."_

 _"Stop talking smack, Kiki. It's just ridiculous coming from you," Tanner chuckled, setting his and Lela's snowman down on the starting line._

 _"Ok, get your snowmen ready," Kiki announced, going into sports commentator mode. This was a serious competitive sport after all, or at least it seemed that way to the group of friends._

 _"Come on Frosty," Lela giggled, tapping the plastic snowman on the head as Tanner wound up the clockwork._

 _"On your marks," Kiki continued as everyone set their snowmen down on the starting line. "Get set, go!" And with that, everyone let go of the snowmen and they went waddling off down the track. Waddling into each other's lanes, that is. They didn't really walk as straight as they had intended them to._

 _Between the cheers and chants of encouragement from the teens around her, Lela hadn't noticed the mewls and hisses coming from the feline in her lap. Only when she felt a sharp scratch on her hand, that made her draw it away from the kitten's body in surprise, did she realise that Holly didn't seem to be very fond of the toddling snowmen. The cat took a leap onto the table and stumbled onto the racetrack, batting away the clockwork snowmen in the process. Everyone jumped back in surprise as Lela and Tanner tried to grab the runaway kitten. However, unfortunately for Kiki, during the chaos she'd had her face a little too close to the level of the table, which resulted in the cat's claws getting tangled in her hair as it tried to chase away a plastic snowman. And that it when the picture was taken._

"See, it's not her fault that she doesn't like plastic snowmen," Lela said defensively, gently stroking the white kitten's back. "And Kiki just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was fine after we untangled Holly."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm still not buying it," Butchy grumbled, his opinions on the cat not having changed one bit.

"How else do you think it could have happened?" Lela demanded. "I think the picture explains itself enough anyway."

"That picture might, but this one doesn't," Struts piped up, picking up yet another picture and starting to squint at it.

 **I really hope that you liked it!**

 **I know that it was kind of an abrupt ending but I'd kind of run out of other ideas for how to finish it. I hope that you don't mind too much! Another thing that I hope that you don't mind about is that I slipped Coral into this chapter. This is all that I had planned for her so you don't need to worry about her anymore; I just wanted to add a little something involving her into the story somehow.**

 **Now, since Christmas is approaching very quickly, I need to get working on the next chapter. So who do you want to hear about next?**

 **Seacat & CheeChee**

 **Or Butchy & Giggles?**

 **Let me know as soon as possible because I really need to start writing it!**

 **Right, now for the Christmas question of the chapter. What is your favourite Christmas film? For me, although I love lots (some honourable mentions including Elf, Arthur Christmas and Miracle on 34th Street) my all-time favourite will probably have to be Nativity. Have you seen it? I don't really know how popular it is but it's a great film with amazing songs. It follows the story of a primary school who try to put on the best Nativity play ever and the whole story is so accurate to what it's really like that I can't help but feel nostalgic when I watch it. I would thoroughly recommend it. Do you have any recommendations for me?**

 **I didn't get any feedback on Just Like Me so I'm not going to press the matter anymore, I'll just try to write for it when I can. Apart from that though, I think that's all I have to say for now! Let me know what you thought of the chapter because I can't help but smile when I read your reviews and your advice really does help!**

 **Thank you so much for reading!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	4. Toasty Warm (Butchy & Giggles)

**Hello!**

 **I know that I only posted a chapter yesterday but I actually managed to get the next chapter done today. I honestly didn't think that I would be able to but here I am. XD**

 **Anyway, Butchy & Giggles seemed to be the next most popular couple to write a chapter about, so here you go! I don't really have much experience writing for them so I hope that it isn't too terrible. **

"That picture might explain itself, but this one doesn't," Struts said, picking up a picture from the table and letting her mouth fall open in shock. "What the heck happened here?"

"And why is Butchy actin' like a human barbeque?" CheeChee asked, her eyebrows knitting together like her Christmas jumper as she looked at the picture in confusion with Struts.

"What?" Lugnut questioned, snapping his head in Struts' direction to check out the image for himself.

"When did this happen?" Seacat asked, scrambling around the back of the chairs to get a better view of the picture. "And who took the picture?"

"Why? What is it?" Lela asked, getting up from her seat as everyone crowded around Struts and the photograph.

"Well Giggles couldn't have taken it because she's in it," Tanner pointed out, spotting the blonde surfer girl almost immediately. "So someone must have taken your camera."

"Why thank you Captain Obvious," CheeChee said sarcastically, failing her attempt to not roll her eyes.

"I like how we're focusing on who took the picture instead of what's actually happening in the photo," Seacat said, matching his girlfriend's dry sarcasm perfectly. "Because, in case you hadn't already noticed, Butchy's kind of on fire."

"Thanks man," Butchy grinned, taking the surfer boy's statement as a compliment.

"I don't think that was a compliment, Sweetie," Giggles whispered to the biker boy, whose face turned to embarrassment almost immediately.

"How did that even happen?" Struts asked. Her eyes practically popped out of her head the longer that she looked at the image.

"Wait, did you burn your Christmas jumper?!" Lela cried, being given yet another reason to be annoyed with her brother.

"Maybe," Butchy said, adjusting the rolled up sleeves of his navy blue jumper to try to hide the scorched black areas further.

"Bradley Jenkins, not only have you ruined a perfectly good Christmas jumper," Lela started, switching to her no-nonsense 'you're really ticking me off now' mode in a matter of seconds.

"It's not like I burnt it on purpose, I don't just go lightin' myself on fire for fun," Butchy cut in, trying not to let the stifled laughs from his friends at the mention of his full name bother him.

"Well I wouldn't say that you were exactly tryin' to prevent it," Lela retaliated, crossing her arms over her chest. "I wouldn't have been standing so close to an open flame if I were you. In case you didn't know, alcohol's pretty flammable."

Everyone didn't know whether to find this confrontation between the two siblings hilarious or shocking, so there was a rather bizarre mix of reactions to each quip. Some gasped, some didn't dare to say anything and some started to laugh but then thought better of it and just awkwardly trailed off back into silence.

"Ok, first of all, yes I know that, I's not an idiot," Butchy said, staying oddly calm during the 'stand-off' he was having with his little sister. He obviously didn't see her as a threat. "And second of all, I had two drinks; I'd hardly consider that to be enough to qualify me as an alcoholic."

"It's still two drinks too many," Lela huffed with a firm frown etched onto her face.

"Look, I don't mean to interrupt but could you maybe finish this up later?" Seacat stepped in, favouring hearing about the story behind the picture instead of the siblings' argument.

"Yeah," Giggles agreed, taking a step back over to Butchy and linking her arm with his. "The story behind the picture isn't as bad as it looks, it doesn't even have anything to do with alcohol."

"Really?" Struts asked, in a little bit of a forced way. The rest of the teens had made a sort of silent pact to try to break up the siblings' fight before it took off, so the forced questions and rather rapid change of discussion topic was all down to that.

"Yeah, why don't we tell you?" Giggles prompted, dragging Butchy down to sit with her. Before either Butchy or Lela could protest, Giggles launched into the story.

 _The night was panning out pretty nicely for Giggles, but maybe she'd made that assumption too soon. After all, she hadn't seen the state of her boyfriend yet. Giggles had been taking advantage of her new gift by snapping pictures of her friends at the party ever since she had received it around an hour before, but now she had decided that she should be spending time a little more time with the one who had given her the camera in the first place. So she left it on the bar and skipped over to the 'gingerbread man station' as it had been named, where she had spotted the biker boy earlier when he was talking to Aval. But leaving her camera around had obviously led to some repercussions, for example: being snapped with her burning boyfriend half an hour later._

 _"_ _Hi there," Giggles chirped, skidding to a halt beside Butchy's chair as she bent down to peck him on the cheek._

 _The biker boy seemed to have other ideas for how he was going to great his girlfriend though because his, "'Sup Giggles," prompted him to hold is hand out for a fist bump._

 _So with Giggles going in for a kiss and Butchy going for a fist bump, their greeting took a rather unexpected turn. And that unexpected turn was that Butchy inadvertently punched Giggles in the face._

 _The surfer girl reeled back in shock, her hands instinctively clutching her nose (which had taken the bulk of the blow). And Butchy just stared at her in shock, not quite able to process what he had just done._

 _"_ _You's ok?" he asked as something which might have been able to pass as a laugh escaped with a breath. The whole situation had become so ridiculous to him that it was almost comical._

 _"_ _Yeah," Giggles replied, the same airy laugh slipping past her lips as she cautiously took her hands away from her nose._

 _"_ _Sorry," Butchy chuckled as Giggles bent down further to reach his level._

 _"_ _It's ok," Giggles smiled, evidently not bothered that she had just had a bust up with her boyfriend._

 _"_ _Whatcha been doin'?" Butchy asked, going back to rather clumsily decorating the gingerbread man in front of him._

 _"_ _Just testing out my new camera," Giggles replied happily, pulling a seat up beside Butchy so that she didn't have to stand any more. "What about you? You seem to be pretty busy," she pointed out, her eyes moving from the biker boy's face down to his 'culinary masterpiece'._

 _"_ _Lela said I was bein' too disruptive so she set me up makin' gingerbread men," Butchy huffed, his voice showing his defeat._

 _"_ _You? Disruptive? Never," Giggles scoffed, knowing that she was teasing the biker boy from the light shove that she received alone. "What did you do to make her sit you out of all the fun?" she continued to ask, the cheeriness of her voice carrying a laughter-like quality that is probably where she got her nickname from._

 _"_ _She caught me with this," Butchy answered, swapping the little plastic tube of green icing for a small tumbler of burgundy liquid._

 _"_ _Ooh, what is it?" Giggles asked, her innocence making Butchy have to stifle a snort of laughter._

 _"_ _Port, it's like wine. Ya wanna try some?" he challenged, gently shaking the glass of dark liquid in front of Giggles' face. He knew that it was wrong to be taking advantage of the blonde like this, especially when she was acting her hair colour, but he wasn't going to let it go any further, he wasn't that cruel._

 _"_ _Sure!" Giggles grinned, her temptations totally taking over the rational side of her brain as she made a move to grab the glass. But Butchy swiped it away at the last second._

 _"_ _Giggles, I was kiddin'. You don't want this," he told her, not being able to hold back the snort of laughter this time because hadn't expected her to actually accept the offer. She was too adorable not to laugh at though. God, what had she brought him to? The big, bad, leader of the Rodents was being charmed by an 'adorable' surfer girl, and he was enjoying every second of it. He could honestly say that he'd never seen that coming. No one had._

 _"_ _How do you know what I do and don't want?" Giggles asked, her eyebrows creasing as her face showed something of mild discontent. She wasn't used to frowning much so she didn't really know what she was doing._

 _"_ _G, this is alcohol. Trust me, you really don't want this," Butchy said, this time with a little more of a firm tone to his voice. He felt it his responsibility to protect her from things like this, things that would lead her astray, anyway. She'd never told him to and he'd never told her that he was looking out for her, but he just sort of had a primal instinct to._

 _Giggles seemed to pick up the message this time, which was very easy to see from the way that her eyes practically grew to twice their size._

 _"_ _Where did you get it from?" Giggles hissed, bringing her head closer to Butchy's so that no one could hear what she was saying._

 _"_ _Aval brought it. Why are ya whisperin'? It's not a secret, everyone knows, you's not gonna get in trouble," Butchy chuckled, yet again finding his girlfriend's behaviour adorable._

 _"_ _You shouldn't be drinking that, Mister," Giggles said, her effort to be stern being met with another laugh from the biker boy._

 _"_ _Says who?" Butchy asked, taking a cheeky sip right under Giggles' nose._

 _"_ _The law," Giggles replied, moving to take the glass out of his hands, only for his to swipe it away from her at the least second again._

 _"_ _I'm over eighteen, it's fine," Butchy said, brushing the comment off with ease as he set the tumbler glass back down onto the table._

 _"_ _So basically, Lela sat you down here to stop you from going on a drunken rampage," Giggles summed up, quirking one of her eyebrows at Butchy, who was fiddling with a loose thread from his leather gloves._

 _"_ _Yeah, pretty much."_

 _"_ _So what kinds of gingerbread men have you been making then?" Giggles asked, hoping that by trying to keep Butchy focused on different topics she'd prevent him from having any more to drink. She really didn't need his drunken state to get any worse. At least he was just merely a bit 'squiffy' at this point._

 _"_ _This one's my favourite," Butchy said proudly, his tipsiness almost giving him the mannerisms of a small child._

 _"_ _It's…lovely," Giggles said, trying to find the right word to fit with the rather messily decorated gingerbread man that she had been faced with._

 _"_ _It's you," Butchy added, looking to the blonde for some sign of approval._

 _"_ _Me?" Giggles questioned, honestly struggling to recognise the resemblance between the squiggly iced biscuit and her. Nonetheless, she tried to be positive, which luckily came naturally to her. "How…thoughtful."_

 _"_ _It's pretty bad, isn't it?" Butchy asked, realising from Giggles' reactions that his 'best' gingerbread man might not even be considered 'adequate'. If Giggles couldn't even find anything good about it then that was pretty much enough to classify it as a disaster._

 _"_ _No, it's really sweet," Giggles promised him, finding the thought behind the gesture a lot more touching than the actual visual representation itself. "I love it." And just to clarify the fact that she loved both the gingerbread man and its creator himself, she locked lips with him. She tried not to let the slight sharp, sour taste of lingering alcohol bother her but Butchy quickly sensed that she felt uncomfortable and drew back. He didn't press the matter to find out what was wrong, instead deciding to try to take her mind off it._

 _"_ _Hey, why don't we get out of here for a little bit?" he suggested, quickly glancing around the beach hangout spot and no longer having a desire to stick around to hear more cheesy Christmas carols being sung in full voice right in his ear._

 _"_ _Where could we go?" Giggles asked, nervously tucking a strand of her hair (which she had curled specifically for the party) behind her ear._

 _"_ _Just outside, I hear that someone's set up a campfire," Butchy replied, feeling like getting some fresh (non-spiced candle and pine needle infused) air would clear his admittedly fuzzy head._

 _"_ _Ok, deal," Giggles agreed with a small grin. "On one condition though."_

 _"_ _And what's that?"_

 _"_ _We have to sneak some marshmallows from the buffet table to roast," Giggles mischievously grinned, feeling very rebellious with her suggestion to steal some food, even if it was free._

 _"_ _Deal," Butchy chuckled, finding Giggles' suggestion adorable yet again. It was slowly starting to dawn on him that he might just find everything about Giggles adorable, even if it had taken him a while to come to this realisation._

 _So with that, Giggles bounced up from her chair and dragged her boyfriend to his feet. She slipped her hand into his and they slowly entwined their fingers together as they made their way to the exit, which proved to be a lot more difficult than expected with Giggles skipping ahead and laughing away to herself at the prospect of going against the rules._

* * *

 _"_ _It's a lot colder out here than I thought it would be," Giggles shivered, her shaking hands clutching onto the marshmallow-roasting stick for dear life. "I've never been so jealous of a marshmallow."_

 _"_ _Here, take this," Butchy replied, setting his stick on the log beside him before slipping off his new, long-sleeved leather jacket. "It's extra big on ya, which scientifically makes it warmer," he chuckled, sliding the jacket across the surfer girl's shoulders before tucking it under her chin._

 _"_ _Thank you," Giggles said quietly, a grateful smile breaking out across her rosy, wind-bitten cheeks. "But aren't you going to be cold?" she asked, worry seeping into her voice as she nervously looked over at her boyfriend, who was now only wearing his Christmas jumper._

 _"_ _Nah, I'll be fine," Butchy reassured her, once again brushing off her concerns._

 _A calm silence fell across the couple soon after that, with the only sounds accompanying the silence being the crackling fire in front of them and the quiet lapping of the waves. It was like they didn't need to be speaking, just being in each other's presence was enough to keep a small grin etched onto their faces. Giggles seemed to be the next thing to fill the silence though, coming out with a rather unexpected sentence._

 _"_ _You know, a lot of biker guys can be jerks, but not you."_

 _"_ _Really? What's that supposed to mean?" Butchy asked, not knowing whether to be touched or offended. Sure he had a reputation for being the tough guy but had Giggles already seen through that mask to his true personality? Or were the effects of the alcohol starting to reveal things about him without him knowing._

 _"_ _Nothing really," Giggles admitted, not really knowing how to put what she was thinking into words. "Just that I know that you have more to you than the accent and the unruly behaviour."_

 _Butchy didn't really have a response to this; he'd kind of been knocked down with no known way of getting back up again._

 _"_ _You lose it when you get serious," Giggles added, sneaking a glance at the biker boy to watch his reactions. "Or worried."_

 _"_ _Lose what?" Butchy asked curtly. Apparently being caught off guard made him snappy._

 _"_ _Your accent," Giggles explained quietly, almost shyly letting her gaze fall back to her marshmallow, which was now bordering complete blackness, yet she still didn't bring it out of the flames._

 _"_ _I do?" Butchy asked, to which Giggles responded with a nod._

 _"_ _Is it bad that I like you better without it?" Giggles asked, feeling guilty for suggesting such a thing almost immediately after she'd said it. Butchy's accent was like an identity for him, so saying that she didn't like his accent was like saying that she didn't like Butchy himself, which certainly wasn't what she had meant. Yet, Butchy didn't see it that way._

 _"_ _No," he said quietly. He took a deep breath before speaking next, hardly able to believe that he was about to confess what he was. "I don't really like it either. I did it when I was younger and then it just sort of stuck," he admitted sheepishly, finding the whole thing incredibly stupid now._

 _"_ _Butchy," Giggles started, trying to grab the biker boy's attention in vain._

 _"_ _I mean, it's not that big of a deal, right?" Butchy continued, in full on self-conscious/sensitive/reassurance seeking mode, which basically meant that he wasn't going to be interrupted by anything._

 _"_ _Butchy-"_

 _"'_ _Cause it's kind of hard to kick a habit you've had for like ten years-"_

 _"_ _Butchy!" Giggles practically screamed, abandoning her marshmallow and shoving the biker boy back from the fire, which had started to lick at his arm. Apparently some of the flames had plans to stick around though because even when Giggles had pushed him away from the open fire, they sprung up from the wool on his jumper._

 _Butchy's eyes flew open in alarm and he was essentially paralysed with fear. Giggles, however, sprang into action and hauled the biker boy to his feet before propelling him towards the water's edge, where she dunked him in head first with a squeal and a wince. The fire was eventually fully extinguished around ten seconds later after Butchy was showered with water from Giggles kicking water at him in a blind panic._

 _"_ _Ok, that's enough, Giggles," Butchy spluttered, trying to catch his breath between the splashes. "I's fine now."_

 _"_ _Oh my gosh, are you alright?!" Giggles cried, dropping to her knees in the shallow surf to hug the sodden biker boy to her chest._

 _"_ _I'm fine," Butchy repeated, feeling the aftermath of a tiny wave race up the shore and soak his jeans even more. "But maybe we should go back inside now…and dry off a bit."_

 _"_ _Yeah, you're right," Giggles agreed, looking down at her damp Christmas jumper and water-logged white boots, which were half buried in the soggy sand. As for Butchy, he was sopping wet from head to toe, everything from his jeans to his burnt Christmas jumper to his hair, which had flopped significantly now that the gel had been washed out of it._

 _"_ _Come on," Butchy said, holding out his hand to Giggles, which she gladly took. And with that, the couple scurried back to Big Momma's and entered through the back door, hoping to get some sympathy from the kitchen staff from their bedraggled appearances, which of course they received. So the couple spent the next hour or so snuggled up by an empty oven, wrapped in thick, fluffy towels with mugs of hot chocolate; the whole 'fire incident' totally forgotten about…until it was brought up again, of course._

"Hey, I didn't know that you guys had ditched the party," CheeChee piped up, shooting the mismatched couple an unimpressed look.

"You can't talk, ya didn't show up until it was half over," Lugnut scoffed, earning a glare and a sharp jab from the feisty biker girl.

"We didn't really ditch, we just went out to get some air," Giggles clarified, glancing across at Butchy to make sure that he agreed with her.

"And you ended up as a human tiki torch?" Seacat asked, raising one of his eyebrows as he shot Butchy and accusing look.

"Pretty much, yeah," Butchy agreed, finding Seacat's summary surprisingly accurate.

"Wait a second, CheeChee, why did you arrive so late to the party?" Lela asked, just realising now what Lugnut had said.

"Oh, funny story," CheeChee awkwardly laughed, starting to blush from embarrassment as everyone's gazes fell on her.

 **I really hope that you enjoyed it!**

 **I'll try to get the next chapter done as soon as I can but I'm not promising that it will be up tomorrow, I'm still kind of in shock that I managed to write all of this today. And since I've written about the other three couples now, the next chapter will be about Seacat & CheeChee (one of my personal favourite couples). I've got a pretty good (and a little bit different) idea for them so I hope that it all pans out like I hope that it does!**

 **Ok, so the Christmas question of the chapter is: What is your favourite Christmas tradition? I think that mine is probably that I always go for a meal at a local Chinese restaurant on Christmas Eve. Yes, it's a bit on an odd tradition but it's always loads of fun! Do you have any Christmas-y traditions?**

 **Also, I just realised that today is the day that the characters' Christmas party was being held. So I guess that's kind of cool. XD**

 **Anyway, I think that's all for now! It's not long to Christmas so I hope that you're all getting excited!**

 **Thank you for reading and reviewing!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	5. Snowmen In The Slammer (Seacat&CheeChee)

**Hello!**

 **First of all, let me say sorry in advance because this chapter is way too long. XD I got far too carried away for my own good! I'm also sorry that I didn't manage to get this up yesterday because even though I managed to write over five thousand words (oh my god, how?) and (kind of terribly) wrap all of my mum's Christmas presents, I didn't have time to read through it an check for mistakes. So I'm sorry about that, I tried my best to get it up this morning instead.**

 **Like I said though, I'm sorry in advance for how long this chapter turned out to be. I let myself get carried away by Cheacat. XD What can I say? I love them too much! XD And even though I know that they're one of the lesser popular ships, they're still right up at the top for me. XD**

 **Before I actually get into the chapter though, I want to say that the inspiration for it was a short story in the book that I'm reading at the moment called Let It Snow. The particular short story that I picked a few ideas from is called The Jubilee Express by Maureen Johnson. Have any of you read it?**

 **Anyway, here's you probably didn't care at all about any of that, so here's the chapter that you came here to read!**

"Wait a second, CheeChee, why did you arrive so late to the party?" Lela asked as everyone's gazes fell on the feisty biker girl in question.

"Oh, funny story," CheeChee said, letting out an awkward, forced laugh.

"I wouldn't exactly call it funny-" Seacat started, before Tanner cut in.

"And you, Seacat. Why were you so late?" he asked, forcing everyone's eyes away from CheeChee to the curly haired surfer boy.

"It's a long story," Seacat replied, stealing a look at CheeChee, who could easily sympathise with him now that she was thinking back to what happened before they arrived at the party. How could she have snapped at him like she did earlier after everything that he'd done for her tonight?

"Well we've all told ours, I'm sure one more won't be a problem," Struts said. In reality, she was just too comfy to move just yet, so listening to another story snuggled up with Lugnut sounded like a pretty good idea to her.

"Yeah, well, this one's a little different to all yours," CheeChee said, nervously picking at the edge of her nail as she quickly ran back through that night's events in her head.

"That just makes it more interesting," Giggles smiled, hoping to persuade her friends into telling their story without having to resort to brutal force.

"Please, guys," Lela said, sticking her bottom lip out and batting her eyelashes at the couple in full on 'I'm begging you now' mode.

"Oh, fine," CheeChee sighed, giving in to the pleading and deciding to just pour everything out to them. "It went a little something like this…"

 _Seacat was just grabbing his car keys from the hall table and checking his appearance one last time in the mirror when the phone rang. "I'll get it," he called out, figuring that since he was virtually stood next to the phone he might as well answer it._

 _"Seacat?" a voice crackled through from the other end of the line._

 _"CheeChee?" Seacat questioned, checking that he'd heard the voice correctly._

 _"Yeah, please don't tell me ya've left your house yet," CheeChee said, taking on an almost desperate tone._

 _"Why? What's going on?" Seacat asked, sensing that something was wrong._

 _"I'm in a bit of trouble," CheeChee started, trying to avoid just blatantly telling her boyfriend what had happened for the sake of her pride._

 _"What kind of trouble? Are you alright?" Seacat asked, really starting to panic now. It was very rare for him to get a phone call from CheeChee anyway, let alone when he was just about to leave his house for a party. Especially a party that he had expected CheeChee to already be at considering that he was five minutes late._

 _"I'm fine but ya might need to come and pick me up if ya want me to be at the Christmas party."_

 _"What are you talking about? I need to come pick you up? Where even are you?" Seacat asked, gripping the telephone a little tighter each time that CheeChee brought up a new thing for him to worry about._

 _"Well ya know how I went to the mall?"_

 _"What's so bad about the mall? Can't you just drive back on your bike? What's the problem?"_

 _"No, I just kinda got in some trouble at the mall," CheeChee clarified, still not wanting to fully admit what she'd done._

 _"What do you mean? What have you done this time?"_

 _"I'm kinda sorta in jail," CheeChee replied, only realising after she'd spoken how bad it sounded._

 _"You're what?!" Seacat shouted, earning a puzzled look from his brother, who was just coming down the stairs. He was too concerned about CheeChee to care about that now though. "How?! What did you do?!"_

 _"Stop freakin' out, it's not actual jail," CheeChee snapped, sensing that her boyfriend was more or less flipping out on the other end of the line. "I'm stuck in mall jail and they're not lettin' me out 'til someone comes to take me home."_

 _"Mall jail?" Seacat clarified, calming down a little bit now that he knew that his girlfriend wasn't a convict. "Why didn't you start with that? You almost gave me a heart attack."_

 _"I could tell," CheeChee drawled. Even though Seacat couldn't see her, he knew that she was rolling her eyes._

 _"Ok, I'll be there in like twenty minutes."_

 _"But it's only like a ten minute drive here," CheeChee protested, hoping to have been taken back home a little sooner than what the surfer boy was proposing._

 _"Yeah but unlike you, I prefer to stick to the speed limit," Seacat bit back, realising that it was probably reckless behaviour like that that had landed the biker girl in her 'mall cell'._

 _"Ok, see ya soon."_

 _"Bye, Honey," Seacat replied before placing the phone back down on its stand and hurrying out of the front door._

* * *

 _Seacat followed the signs hanging from the ceiling of the relatively deserted shopping centre as best as he could to get to the mall's jail but in the end he had to resort to asking a lanky teen mopping the floor for directions. When he eventually did reach the supposed 'containment department for disruptive shoppers' he was faced with a grumpy, stout, bald man sat behind a desk in the traditional mall cop's uniform. To Seacat, he kind of looked like a bulldog._

 _"Um, excuse me," Seacat started, trying to come across as polite as possible to the man so that there would be no problems with releasing his girlfriend._

 _"Can I help you?" the man asked, looking up from a stack of paperwork with a bored expression. It was almost like he deflated as soon as he clocked Seacat's Christmas jumper and Santa hat. Obviously Seacat's fashion choice didn't bode too well with the man._

 _"I'm here for Christine," Seacat explained, guessing that CheeChee had been honest enough with the man to give him her full name._

 _"Come with me," the guard grunted, picking up a bunch of keys and a clipboard before walking through a door to the side of him._

 _As soon as Seacat stepped into the other room he locked eyes with a very embarrassed and rather familiar biker girl sat on a rickety metal bench behind a set of steel bars. The surfer boy shot her an unimpressed look that got across the message: 'I really hope you have a good explanation for this or I'm going to be super p'ed off at you'. But his face soon returned to a calm smile when the security guard turned back to him with a question at his lips._

 _"Are you aged over eighteen, sir?"_

 _"Yes," Seacat responded, although it came out as more or a question than an answer. And his eighteenth birthday had been four months ago, that counted as_ _over_ _eighteen, right?_

 _"Are you a parent, family member or guardian of this young lady?"_

 _"Yes," Seacat replied, instantly shocked at himself for lying to a figure of authority with such confidence. Although technically it wasn't a lie. CheeChee hadn't really had any contact with either of her parents during her life and had grown up in a 'dumping ground for kids with parents who don't care' as CheeChee had so affectionately put it. Sadly, the people at the adoption hostel didn't really care too much either, which is why CheeChee bunked off all the time at other people's houses and ended up just walking out when she was sixteen. So really, since he was probably the closest person to her that he knew of, he could count as her guardian. Just not legally, which is the point that worried him the most, especially after what he had just claimed to the officer._

 _"Then can you fill out this form and sign here, please?" the man asked, handing Seacat the clipboard of forms and a pen._

 _Seacat took the pen and forms and started to look over the papers in an attempt to make it look like he knew what he was doing. But as soon as the man had his back turned, Seacat's eyes flew up to meet CheeChee's in horror. They hadn't even been dating_ that _long and they could already have conversations just with looks, they seemed to have a natural talent for it._

 _'What does all of this even mean?" was Seacat's first look of panic as he fumbled with the sheets of paper on the clipboard._

 _'How am I supposed to know?' was CheeChee sheepish look in reply._

 _'You owe me big time for this.'_

 _'Ya don't already think I know that?'_

 _But then their conversation was cut short because the security guard turned around again. Seacat filled out the forms to the best of his abilities, occasionally mouthing questions to CheeChee to get answers that he didn't know when the cop wasn't looking, and handed the clipboard back to the man when he was done._

 _The man flicked through the sheets of paper, making it appear like he was checking the information even though he was looking at each page far too quickly to actually read anything, before lumbering over to the cell. He unlocked the door and swung it open before addressing CheeChee. "You're free to go," he grumbled, clearly very pleased to see the back of her._

 _"Thank you," CheeChee mumbled, pushing herself up from the bench, grabbing her shopping bags (which had been left beside the door) and breezing straight out of the room._

 _Seacat just looked after her wistfully before sighing and turning to the security guard. "Thank you," he said, wondering after he had spoken why he had felt obliged to thank the dog-like man. "Merry Christmas," he added, feeling like now that he'd started being cheery he might as well just go all in._

 _The officer gave him the expected reaction, which was another grunt before turning to lock up the cell again._

 _Seacat took this as his cue to leave and gratefully stepped outside to find CheeChee laden down with bags, tapping her foot on the freshly mopped floor (thanks to the lanky teen he had asked for directions earlier)._

 _"You took your time," CheeChee snapped, evidently not too happy about being confined in that room for what was pushing on an hour._

 _"Yeah, well there's this thing called traffic that you can't exactly scoot past in a car like you can on a bike," Seacat replied. "And I think the words that you're looking for are 'thank you'."_

 _"Thank you," CheeChee sighed, realising that Seacat was right. He'd forfeited the party and had driven almost twenty miles just to come and pick her up and she was snapping at him. So taking a rather different approach than her abrasive, stand-off-ish behaviour, she stumbled over to Seacat with her shopping bags and wrapped her arms around his waist. Seacat enclosed the biker girl in his arms, taking this advantage of having an almost perfect hug with her. Since CheeChee had come shopping before getting ready for the party, she hadn't teased her hair yet, which meant that Seacat could finally give her a hug that didn't entail him being suffocated by her beehive._

 _"It's ok, that's what I'm here for, right?" Seacat chuckled as CheeChee lifted her head from its place on his chest._

 _"I guess so," CheeChee sniffled, getting unexpectedly emotional over Seacat's gesture. Seacat was the first figure in her life who would put her first no matter what, and this situation just proved that to her more. This was kind of stability and dependability was something that CheeChee had never known until now, which is why it always caught her by surprise and meant such a lot to her._

 _"Come on, let's get you home. You've got a party to get ready for," Seacat said, wiping away a stray tear that had managed to break past the threshold with his thumb. CheeChee let out a small chuckle and a nod as she composed herself again. Seacat took some of the shopping bags out of her hands to balance the load a bit and then the couple made their way back to the shopping centre's car park._

 _"What did you even get in jail for?" Seacat asked as they walked side by side, finally asking the question that had been bugging him since he'd heard the news that his girlfriend was a mall convict._

 _"Well this dumb kid ran into me because he was runnin' over to the Santa's grotto place and made me drop all my bags and then I asked him to say sorry and he didn't and then he spat in my face and stamped on my foot so I may or may not have yelled at him and said that Santa isn't real," CheeChee babbled, hoping that if she said it faster it wouldn't sound as bad._

 _"Wow, way to spread Christmas cheer, Chee," Seacat chuckled sarcastically, making the biker girl roll her eyes._

 _"Well how was I supposed to know that he was gonna start bawlin' in the middle of the mall?" CheeChee asked, just earning another laugh from Seacat. CheeChee was bound to get in trouble at some point in her life, everyone knew it. It was just rather amusing that it was for unmasking the truth about Father Christmas to a bratty kid._

* * *

 _"Do you want me to just drive you back? I can bring you to pick up your bike tomorrow if you want," Seacat suggested, knowing that he would feel a lot more comfortable with CheeChee safe in his car rather than erratically driving on her bike through the snow that had started to fall upon his arrival._

 _"I don't think we'll even be takin' your car," CheeChee said, stopping in her tracks with her eyes wide as her gaze fell on the road beyond the glass doors in front of her. No word of a lie, there was honestly about eight inches of freshly laid snow outside._

 _Now, you're probably wondering how the ever-sunny Wet Side Story universe could possibly have such a thing as snow anywhere within three hundred miles of it. Well think of the coast community as being protected by a bubble; a 'summer all the time' bubble. The characters could leave this 'bubble' whenever they pleased, which explains them going back home to their families for the holidays or just generally going into the city centre for shopping or a change of scenery. Unfortunately, leaving said 'bubble' exposed them to natural phenomena such as snow. And a perfect example of this was right now._

 _"How is that even possible? It was barely an inch when I arrived," Seacat said, almost dropping the shopping bags in surprise._

 _"Well in case ya hadn't already realised, it's kinda blizzardin' out there," CheeChee retaliated, gesturing to the swirling white mass of flurrying snow behind the paned glass doors._

 _"Come on, I'm sure it's not as bad as it looks," Seacat said, trying to remain optimistic as he pushed open the doors. That was a big mistake. The snow hit him with such a force that it felt like his face was being cut with thousands of tiny knives and the air was so cold that it cut him down to the core. Almost instantly he stepped back inside, almost certain that he now had icicles hanging from his hair. "Ok, it's pretty bad."_

 _"What are we gonna do? We can't stay here all night," CheeChee said, nervously chewing on her lip as she looked to Seacat for an answer._

 _"And we're not going to. Is there anything in these bags that's breakable?" Seacat asked, very quickly taking the conversation in a different direction as he gestured to the shopping bags that he and CheeChee were holding on to. The biker girl shook her head and Seacat, taking that as a cue, dumped the contents of the shopping bags onto the floor._

 _"Your presents are in there ya know?" CheeChee checked, watching in confusion as Seacat started to sift through the items on the floor._

 _"That doesn't matter right now," Seacat replied, completely focused on whatever plan he had thought of._

 _"What on earth are ya doing?" CheeChee asked, looking at Seacat like he'd lost his mind._

 _"Helping us survive," he replied simply. "Put on as many layers as you can and then put the things that aren't clothes in your pockets," he ordered, starting to hand CheeChee jumpers and shirts one after the other._

 _"What for?"_

 _"We need to keep warm somehow," Seacat said, taking off his coat before slipping another sweatshirt over his head._

 _"Why can't we keep things in the bags?" CheeChee asked as she struggled to fit a pair of jeans over the leather pants that she was already wearing._

 _"Because they're going to be extra layers," Seacat explained, stuffing a pair of shoes inside his jacket._

 _"What?"_

 _But Seacat didn't even reply, he just grabbed CheeChee by the hands, pulled a few more layers of clothing over her head and then started to pad out her jacket with the spare carrier bags._

 _"We look ridiculous," CheeChee whined as Seacat bound a plastic bag around each of her hands._

 _"Would you rather look ridiculous or not turn into a human?" Seacat asked, tying the final plastic bag around CheeChee's head like a bonnet. "Anyway, I think you look cute."_

 _"Yeah right," CheeChee drawled, but she still appreciated the kiss that Seacat gave her before waddling over to the door._

 _"Ok, you ready?" Seacat asked, his hand closing around the handle of the door as he spoke._

 _"As ready as I'll ever be," CheeChee replied, adjusting her jacket as she stepped up beside him._

 _"Ok, let's go," Seacat said, pulling open the door and taking a step into the harsh, white blur. There hadn't been a blizzard like this for years, it seemed to be relentless. The thick, flakes were falling at what felt like a hundred miles an hour and the wind was battering the poor couple as they pressed on with their journey. CheeChee's dark, loose curls weren't exactly the most practical choice for what she was doing, which was proved to her when they whipped around her face every five seconds. The wind was biting away at any part of skin that was exposed, which thankfully was very minimal because of Seacat's plastic bag plan, and was so bitterly cold that it was making their cheeks red and raw. Speaking of cold, the couple had gone past the point of being 'cold' not even five minutes into their walk. It had gone from being cold to feeling like their legs didn't even exist anymore. Not only had they gone past cold, they'd gone past numb. They were well and truly gone as far as the Wet Side Story teens were concerned. The cold didn't even feel cold to them anymore; it was so severely freezing that it felt like their skin was burning. But maybe that was them just wistfully remembering the feeling of the beating sun they were so used to. Either way, it certainly wasn't supposed to be happening._

 _CheeChee felt like her limbs were icicles, like they could snap in half with the next step that she took. So if she was feeling like that then how on earth was Seacat feeling? Although she hadn't mentioned it back at the store, she'd noticed that Seacat had given most of the carrier bags and spare clothes to her (once again putting his girlfriend before himself) so he must be perilously cold by now. And it didn't really put her mind at ease that he'd stopped talking to her. Then again, he was probably just conserving energy, which would be wasted by talking, to use as body heat. Her worries were quelled though when Seacat turned to her and sacrificed some of that precious energy to speak._

 _"I know a shortcut that will get us back quicker. It'll cut our journey in half, maybe even more."_

 _"We're takin' it," CheeChee said firmly, her breath clouding out in front of her as soon as she opened her mouth._

 _"It's not 100% safe though."_

 _"I don't care."_

 _"CheeChee, I don't want you getting hurt."_

 _"I won't. I'll be fine."_

 _"Are you sure? 'Cause it involves a lake that's probably frozen solid by now."_

 _"I'm positive, keep going."_

 _CheeChee was way too cold to care about any danger now. Anyway, her body temperature was probably dangerously low already. How much more damage could she possibly do?_

* * *

 _So after slipping and skidding their way across the lake (that, as Seacat had predicted, was completely frozen over) and climbing up and the jumping off a six foot wall into a huge snowbank, the teens stumbled their way through the two barriers that made up the entrance to the Wet Side Story community. The snow stopped instantly and the couple collapsed to ground in relief. Even the slightly cool evening breeze felt like the Sahara desert to them; it was utter bliss._

 _"Oh my gosh," CheeChee breathed a sigh of relief, feeling like she was already thawing out._

 _"I never thought we'd make it," Seacat confessed, his chest rising and falling with each shaky breath that he managed to heave out._

 _"Ya didn't show it," CheeChee said, internally thanking the surfer boy for pushing her to keep going, even if her legs had felt like they were made from shards of glass._

 _"'Cause I knew that if we kept going then we'd get here sooner," Seacat explained. "And I knew that if I started thinking negatively then we'd have both given up a lot quicker."_

 _"You're probably right," CheeChee chuckled, so delirious from the cold that she was reduced to laughter._

 _There was a slight pause in the conversation after that, both teens just quietly relishing in the fact that they were no longer walking through what felt like an industrial freezer._

 _"Come on," Seacat eventually piped up, pushing himself up into a seating position before clumsily getting to his feet._

 _"Come on where?"_

 _"My house," Seacat replied simply, holding his hands out to help pull CheeChee to her feet._

 _"What?! Like your house that has your parents and your family in it?!" CheeChee squeaked, almost being knocked back down again from shock._

 _"Yeah," Seacat replied easily, not understanding that this rocketed CheeChee's panic level onto a whole new scale._

 _"I can't go back to your house, especially like this!" CheeChee shouted, gesturing to her plastic bag covered hands and wild hair that looked like it was an icy house for a family of birds. "And we've only been dating for what? Three months? It's ridiculous!"_

 _"I didn't mean it like that. I just don't want you walking into the party looking like you need to be defrosted and wrapped in a space blanket for three years," Seacat explained, a whole lot more chilled out about the situation than CheeChee was. But that was probably just because being relaxed was part of his nature. "You don't have to stay for long, you can just take a hot shower and make yourself look a little bit less like a wild bag lady," he continued, hoping that maybe if he added in a little bit of light-hearted humour CheeChee wouldn't find it as nerve-wracking._

 _"Ya can't just go back draggin' me into your house out of the blue, Seacat!" CheeChee protested._

 _"Why not? My mom would probably kill me if I didn't," Seacat shot back, letting out a laugh because whilst CheeChee was freaking out about this, he was finding it oddly amusing. "Especially after I just dragged you through the worst blizzard of the century."_

 _The couple stared each other down for a solid two minutes, waiting to see who was going to crack first. Long story short, it was CheeChee. And before she knew what was happening, Seacat was propelling her through the front door._

 _"Sam, is that you?" a woman's voice called from the kitchen._

 _"Yeah, mom," Seacat called back, oddly not fazed by being called by his proper name in front of one of his friends._

 _"Why are you back so early? I thought you were out at that party," Seacat's mother asked, making her way out of the kitchen and into the hallway, where she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of the two teens. "Oh, who's this?" she asked, her eyes moving from her son to the 'bird woman' that he had brought into the house._

 _"This is Christine, better known as CheeChee," Seacat replied, quite clearly very comfortable talking about his girlfriend in front of his parents. Unlike CheeChee herself, who she was too scared to move._

 _"Oh my goodness, CheeChee! It's so lovely to meet you!" Seacat's mother gushed, instantly moving towards the girl with a broad smile and open arms. "I'm Dianne," she introduced, taking CheeChee's (freezing) hands in hers and giving them a reassuring squeeze. Dianne had a very warm aura about her; she sort of exuded the typical motherly, welcoming nature that CheeChee had always prayed that she would have in her life. It kind of scared her how perfect she was, it just made her feel even more out of place. But as soon as Dianne felt how icy cold the girl's hands were, she jumped into action. "Oh you poor thing, you're freezing!" she cried before turning to Seacat. "I don't suppose you're the cause of this?" she asked him, taking on her disapproving mother mode in a matter of seconds. "What have you been doing? Dragging her through a snowbank?"_

 _"Funnily enough, yes," Seacat said, earning a joking thump around the back of his head from his mother._

 _"Good heavens, what were you thinking, Sam?" Dianne muttered, instantly sympathizing with CheeChee rather than Seacat. "Never mind that, we need to get you two warmed up; you're like two blocks of ice. Sam, take CheeChee upstairs and show her where the shower is. You stay in there for as long as you like, Sweet Pea," she cooed to CheeChee, instantly taking a liking to the girl._

 _"Thank you," CheeChee said quietly, surprised at how easily she'd been welcomed by Seacat's mother._

 _Seacat was one of the very few members of the Wet Side Story cast who lived with his family by the beach, which was great for him because his family was a very important part of his life and he was really close to his siblings and parents. So essentially bringing CheeChee into his family was a big step in the right direction for him, especially since he knew that CheeChee really needed a stable family unit in her life. Could his family be the right fit?_

* * *

 _CheeChee must have stayed in that shower for half an hour, if not longer. The hot water felt amazing compared to the winter wasteland she had just traversed. When she emerged from the humid, steam filled bathroom in her freshly dried clothes that Dianne had left outside the door, she felt blissfully warm again. The sub-zero blizzard she had just braved was merely a bad memory. She made her way back downstairs in an attempt to find Seacat but was met instead with his mother and who she presumed was his little sister, who were sat at the small kitchen table._

 _"Hello, dear. I made you a drink if you want it," Dianne said, sending the teen girl yet another warm smile. CheeChee gratefully took the mug and felt the heat seeping through the pottery to her skin. Even though she was perfectly warm now, the extra heat still felt heavenly to her. "Sam told me how you like it," Dianne added, referring to the steaming mug of coffee that the biker girl was holding. She tried it to see if Seacat's mother was indeed correct and discovered to her delight that it was exactly how she prepared it herself. This was getting spookily perfect now._

 _After nursing the cup of coffee whilst Seacat's eight year old little sister, Mary, poured her heart out about the special doll that she wanted for Christmas. The exact doll that she had seen Seacat buy the last time that they went to the mall together. Well, the last time before the whole ordeal today. And after she had witnessed Seacat's fourteen year old brother, Eric, literally steal a huge slab of Christmas cake from right under his mother's nose, Seacat walked into the kitchen looking fresh-faced and well...not frozen again._

 _"You ready to go now?" Seacat checked, his face instantly breaking into a smile at the sight of CheeChee with his siblings._

 _"Yeah, are you?" CheeChee asked, looking up expectantly at the surfer boy. She definitely didn't feel like herself here, especially regarding the way that she was dressed. Yes, her Christmas jumper was an obvious change but she'd left the soft, loose curls in her hair from earlier. She was going to go to a party without her hair in her signature skyscraper beehive...that certainly showed how crazy her evening had been. And she didn't seem to be speaking in her biker accent either. She just felt like she didn't need it here, she had been accepted without it, which was new for her._

 _"Uh huh, and we'll only be two hours late," Seacat chuckled sarcastically, taking CheeChee's hand and leading her towards the door. "Ok, we're going now," Seacat called, prompting his mother to come bustling back into the kitchen._

 _"Oh, have a nice time you two," she said, a big smile sprawled across her face as she looked happily at the couple._

 _"Thank you for having me," CheeChee said shyly, expressing her gratitude with as big a smile as she could muster._

 _"Oh it was no trouble at all, Sweetheart. You're welcome any time," Dianne gushed, pulling CheeChee into a hug._

 _Once the goodbyes were over and the couple finally made it out of the house, it was a breeze getting to Big Momma's after the long-haul struggle through the snow that they had endured not even an hour before. When they eventually arrived at the party, their friends obviously raised questions as to why they were so late but they brushed them off with little concern. They had agreed beforehand that they would just keep their crazy venture as a little secret between them, but it obviously hadn't stayed that way._

"Wow, ok, that was definitely...different," Lela admitted, having had to take in a lot of information in a relatively short space of time.

"Yeah," CheeChee awkwardly laughed, feeling strangely vulnerable now that she'd opened up to her friends like that.

"And now you know why we were fashionably late," Seacat laughed, his sarcastic tone soon returning to him.

"I think that two hours is a bit more than 'fashionably late'," Struts replied, trying to hold back her own laugh for the sake of trying to make it seem like she was unimpressed with her friends' behaviour.

"Speaking of 'late', it's kind of pushing eleven o'clock, guys," Giggles piped up, having spotted the kitchen staff clearing up and leaving as CheeChee and Seacat's story wore on.

"Yeah, I think they kind of want us out," Lugnut agreed, looking around the restaurant and realising that they were the only guests left in there.

"Well why don't we take the party back to our house?" Lela suggested, obviously referring to Butchy when she called it 'our'.

"Lela, no," Butchy said flatly.

"Why not? I don't want to say goodbye to you all just yet, we could stay up and chat for a little bit longer," Lela tried, hoping to put off the tearful farewells she would no doubt be giving her friends when they all had to leave for the holidays.

"Lela, no," Butchy repeated.

"Well I say yes," Giggles argued, agreeing with Lela on the whole 'I can't bear to say goodbye to my friends yet' thing.

"Me too," Tanner agreed.

"I do."

"I do as well."

"I'll come."

And before Butchy knew it, everyone had agreed to go back to his house but him. Since he didn't really have anywhere else to go, he had to oblige. "Ok, come on then, everyone back to our place."

"Yay!" Lela squealed, jumping up from her seat and giving her brother a big hug. Apparently she'd forgotten all about being mad at him now.

So the eight friends all stayed up talking in the siblings' household until the clock struck twelve, which was another sign that paired with Struts' constant yawning, Giggles habit of falling asleep every thirty seconds and the fact that Tanner was struggling to keep his eyes open, showed that it was time to hit the deck for the night.

So the goodbyes were said and the tears threatened to fall, the friends wished each other well and said 'Merry Christmas' to all. Then one at a time and then a few more, the friends all finally walked out the door. Now that everyone was gone two siblings went to bed and turned off all the lights, while their friends travelled home to their families (wherever they were) on this cold, December night.

 **Haha, I told you it was long! Props to you if you made it this far! XD**

 **I hope that you liked it anyway!**

 **Also, thank you to TKDP for pointing out the major flaw in my last chapter! XD Why am I so hopeless when it comes to remembering major plot points? Anyway, my solution to Butchy and Giggles getting completely soaked when the Wet Side Story characters normally stay dry when they come in contact with water is that when it's intended or planned that they will get wet (like it would be in the movie script or if they were making a decision to get wet on purpose) they wouldn't be affected by it because the movie would have already been prepared for it and made sure that they would stay dry. However, if it's something spontaneous like Giggles shoving Butchy into the water or if it's necessary like having a shower or washing your hands, the movie wouldn't be prepared for it or it would just allow it. Is that believable enough? I'm just trying to make a believable excuse for my major booboo, it's not the best but it's all I've got at the moment. XD**

 **Ok so Christmas question for this chapter. What is your most memorable Christmas memory? (*says sarcastically* Wow, nice wording Cherry) I honestly can't think of one moment myself because every Christmas is memorable for me but do you have any specific ones?**

 **Anyway, I hope that you have a happy Christmas Eve Eve (is that a thing? XD) and let me know which couples' chapter has been your favourite?**

 **Thank you for reading and reviewing!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	6. The Elf Charity (Mack & Brady)

**Hello! Merry Christmas Eve!**

 **You're probably wondering why I'm back with another chapter for this story considering that I finished all the prompts yesterday. But you didn't think that I'd write a story without Mack and Brady, did you?**

 **I don't really know where the inspiration for this chapter came from but I kind of don't hate the way that this chapter turned out, which is rather strange for me. Yes it's a little bit weird but I quite like it that way.**

 **Also, I apologise if this isn't perfect, I haven't had time to check through it because it's getting pretty late where I live. I hope that you don't mind too much and that you enjoy it anyway!**

Now on the 21st of December, whilst their friends from the 1960s were partying the night away, Mack and Brady had some rather different plans. Neither one had told the other what their plans were, but apparently fate wanted them to find out. Because when both were praying that they wouldn't be seen by anyone that they knew, they were faced with the person that they knew best. Just great.

Mack needed more money. She might as well just be honest with herself. Although she had already bought all of her Christmas presents, which would have sounded to anyone else that she had her funds under control, it meant that all she had left in her purse now was a dollar bill, two quarters and a nickel. So, to stop her from panicking she did what any other teen her age would have done: she got a job at the mall. Alas, since Christmas was pretty much already upon them, the only job space left open at the mall was a Christmas elf at Santa's grotto. Just great.

Not only did Mack need more cash, Brady needed some too. However, the similarities stop there because whilst Mack already had her gifts wrapped and neatly stacked in her bedroom, Brady had yet to buy anything to gift to those around him. And with four days left until Christmas, that wasn't the best situation to be in. To make matters worse, he had just about as much money as his girlfriend did. It was slightly better for Brady though because he had a whole four dollars, three nickels, two pennies (and a partridge in a pear tree, just joking). But roughly four dollars certainly wasn't enough to buy gifts for all of his family members, Mack and her grandfather and the rest of his friends. So Brady got a job to. Can you guess where? I'll give you a clue, it involves working for a jolly man in a red suit in a shopping centre. As you can probably imagine, this worked wonders for his reputation. Just great.

Telling your significant other that the only way for you to get money was through becoming an elf wasn't exactly the ideal situation for Mack and Brady, so for the sake of their pride they decided to keep it a secret. But the number one rule of being a couple is not to keep secrets, everyone knows that, right? Well apparently not Mack and Brady. So fate chose to teach them a lesson.

When Mack arrived at the mall five minutes early, like she always was when turning up for things, she quickly located the employees' break room and signed in. After finding her very green and red costume from the rack she changed and slipped back out into the midst of the shoppers to take up her post behind the desk at the entrance to 'Santa's Grotto' or at least that's what the sign above the door told her. As she was talking to the first family and walking over to open the door to let them into the workshop, she caught sight of the co-worker that she'd been promised. Her jaw almost dropped to the floor. So did her co-worker's.

Brady had rocked up to the mall five minutes late, like he always did and had gone through the same process as Mack of getting into the same very red and very green costume and was now slipping out of the employee break room to start his shift. The shift that he now saw he would be spending with his girlfriend. He didn't know whether to be thrilled or horrified.

Mack plastered a smile on her face as she ushered the family in to see Santa but as soon as the door was closed she marched over to the blonde, the bells on the toes of her shoes furiously jingling all the way. "What are you doing here?" she demanded, trying her best to keep a straight face, which was very hard considering that Brady looked both ridiculous and adorable in his elf get-up.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," Brady shot back, trying equally hard to hide his own smile, especially considering how cute Mack looked with her lop-sided elf hat starting to slip down in front of her eyes.

"I'm working."

"Well so am I."

"Why didn't you tell me that you got a job here?" they both hissed, keeping their voices down to the best of their abilities so that they didn't look like elves with anger issues to the shoppers.

"Why, even when we're trying to do our own things, do we always end up in these stupid situations together?" Mack sighed.

"I guess fate just can't bear for us to be apart," Brady chuckled, earning a sour look from his girlfriend.

"You wish," she grumbled sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

"Cheer up, Mack. It's Christmas, remember?" Brady grinned, ruffling the girl's chestnut brown hair beneath her pointed, felt hat.

Mack couldn't hold her grin in any longer and apparently her laughter was just as eager to be heard, because not even a second after Brady had spoken a spluttering snort of a giggle escaped her mouth.

"That's the spirit," Brady laughed, not able to help but join in with Mack's infectious laughter. "We're going to be the best elves that have ever set foot in this mall."

"Of course we are," Mack smiled. "And you're the only elf that I'd want working with me today," she added, planting a quick kiss on the blonde's cheek.

"Well let's get started then," Brady said, double-highfiving Mack before turning to the family of four that was wandering over to the desk. And they stuck to Brady's word because they both instantly got down to work. They worked well as a team (as you would expect them to) but they refused to do anything without having a little bit of fun too, and that definitely showed over the course of the day. Two main events being: the giraffe incident and the helium incident. You can probably imagine for yourself how these incidents played but incase you're still a bit unsure, I'll explain them for you.

* * *

Roughly forty five minutes into their shift, two seven or eight year old boys (it was hard to tell) rocked up to Santa's grotto in brightly coloured winter jackets that looked four sizes too big.

"You boys here to see Santa?" Mack asked, leaning over the counter of the 'elf kiosk' to get a better look at the two boys, who nodded their heads in reply. "Well he's just talking to another family at the moment, are you ok to wait for a few minutes?"

"Yes, Ma'am," the boy in the green coat and giant bobble hate replied on behalf of him and his friend.

"Do you boys want a balloon each?" Brady piped up, wanting to take advantage of the helium canister that he and Mack had discovered ten minutes ago.

"Are you supposed to be an elf?" the other boy, the one in the orange coat, asked Brady, looking up intently at the blonde.

"Yes..." Brady trailed off, rather puzzled why this was being brought up now.

"You don't look like an elf," the boy said bluntly.

"What makes you say that?" Brady asked, shooting Mack a baffled glance before turning back to the little boy.

"You're too tall," the boy explained, having to crane his neck to look at the tall teen. "You look more like a giraffe," he continued, causing Mack to burst out laughing.

"How do you know I'm this tall?" Brady asked, hoping to have a bit of a joke around with this boy since he thought he was so clever.

"Because I can see you," the boy replied, having been caught off guard by Brady's question.

"How do you know I'm not standing on a ladder?" Brady challenged, a hint of a smirk curling at his lips as Mack looked on in amusement.

"Because I can see your legs around the table," the boy dead-panned, causing Brady's smile to drop off his face in an instant.

"Ok, you win, kid," Brady chuckled, leaning over the desk to give the little boy a high five.

"Hey, since you're the first kids today that have managed to make us laugh, how about we give you some candy canes?" Mack suggested, lifting a glass bowl of the red and white sweets from underneath the counter.

"Yeah, on the house," Brady carried on, offering the bowl to the two boys in front of them.

"Thank you," they both chorused, each gratefully taking a treat from the bowl.

"And I think Santa's ready to see you now," Brady continued, spotting the previous family exiting the cabin on the other side. "I hope you two have been good," he added, walking out from behind the desk and moving to open the wooden door for the boys.

"Don't worry, we have," the boy in the green coat said with a smile before traipsing into the cosy room.

"Thank you, Mr Giraffe," the one in the orange coat quipped, flashing a cheeky smile before hurrying after his friend.

"Mr Giraffe, I like that," Mack teased, stifling yet another laugh as Brady walked back over to her.

"Don't you start too," Brady chuckled.

* * *

The next incident happened about an hour and a half later, when it was nearing the end of the couple's shift. The customer flow had slowed down quite a lot by now, which left the two teens to resort to using their remaining time at work to the best of their abilities. However, they weren't exactly in their best frames of mind considering they'd been on constant 'smiley elf' mode for the past two hours. So the best of their abilities was taking advantage of the helium canister. And just as their duet to All I Want For Christmas Is You was ending, their new favourite song started to play.

"Oh my god, it's that stupid Chipmunk song again," Mack huffed, glaring up at the speakers attached to the room of Santa's cabin as if it was their fault for serenading her with the squeaky voices for the seventh time since their shift had started. "Is this what children like these days?"

"Apparently so," Brady replied, his voice reminiscent of a chipmunk. The sound of Brady's warped voice almost made Mack fall over from shock, but reduced her to laughter as soon as she turned around. Brady was innocently sat on a stool beside the helium canister with a blue balloon in his hand, the end pinched between his fingers.

"What on earth are you doing?" Mack laughed.

"Amusing myself," Brady replied, holding the balloon up like it was obvious what he was doing.

"Brady, we're supposed to be working," Mack scolded, trying her hardest not to burst out laughing at Brady's voice. How on earth was she supposed to take him seriously when he was talking to her like that?

"No one's here," Brady answered although the helium was starting to leak out of his voice. "And no one has been for the last fifteen minutes."

"I suppose you're right," Mack sighed, not having the heart to continue bickering with him.

"Come on, you know that you want to try some," Brady prompted, having spotted Mack looking at the balloon in his hands.

"Brady, no," Mack said firmly.

"Just try it," Brady tried, holding the balloon out to Mack.

"Oh go on then," Mack gave in, taking the balloon with a mischievous smile. So she sucked up some of the helium and tried a sentence. "How do I sound?"

"Hilarious," Brady chuckled, bursting out laughing at Mack's altered voice, which had changed even more dramatically than Brady's.

"Hey, now we have the perfect voices to compliment this song," Mack said, realising that her chipmunk like tone was not that far from the singing voices blaring from the speaker system.

"Come on then, we've heard it enough times to know all the words," Brady said, blowing up a purple balloon and using that as his own source of helium.

Three helium-fuelled singalongs later, a family finally stepped up to the desk to find the two elves laughing so hard that tears were running down their faces.

"Um, excuse me?" the mother called, snapping the two teens back to attention.

"Oh, I'm so sorry about that, come with me," Mack babbled, not realising until after she'd spoken that she still sounded like a chipmunk. Brady tried his best to stop laughing but his best wasn't good enough because he was practically clutching his sides as Mack led the small family over to the entrance. The little girl just gaped at Mack in surprise, obviously very confused as to why her voice was so high, but didn't bother to say anything. "Merry Christmas," Mack added as she showed the family inside, earning a last puzzled and slightly concerned look from the girl's parents before closing the door again.

"That was amazing," Brady managed to say between laughs, fresh tears rolling across his cheeks.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Mack brushed him off, clearly embarrassed that she'd been caught messing around.

"This is the very reason why I love you," Brady chuckled, making Mack look across at him.

"Because you like to see me make a fool of myself?" Mack questioned, raising one of her eyebrows at the blonde as she waited for an answer.

"No, because even in the worst of situations you still manage to make me smile," Brady replied, stealing a kiss on his girlfriend's cheek before going back to his post with a broad grin.

"Oh come here you," Mack beamed, grabbing Brady by the shoulders and pulling him in for a proper kiss.

* * *

So between the two main incidents, the couple surprisingly managed to get quite a good bit of work done and at the end of their shift picked up some pretty weighty paychecks. Now, both teens were thrilled with the result of their hard work, but both had a very different idea of what to do with it than what they had when they walked into the establish earlier that day.

Whilst they had been working their posts at Santa's Grotto, they kept catching sight of the gift drive for children in need that was stationed opposite them. On more than one occasion they had seen the two ladies running the stand start to fret that the remaining cards, that stated each child from the shelter's gift, wouldn't be picked up by shoppers and fulfilled. If the panic on the two woman's faces wasn't enough to trigger Mack and Brady's guilt then the thought of the children waking up on Christmas morning with no present to open and no family to spend the day with pushed them right over the edge. And if the shoppers that they had served today were too self-centered to care about any family other than their own, Mack and Brady told themselves that they certainly wouldn't be.

"Brady," Mack started, padding over to her boyfriend with her paycheck clasped in her hands. "I think that you and I both know some people who need this money a lot more than we do."

"I'm so glad that you were thinking that too," Brady said, going over and pressing a kiss onto Mack's forehead. "Now," he continued, plucking his payslip from his back pocket. "Let's go and cash these in and buy some toys."

And that's exactly what they did. They exchanged their cheques for cash and sidled up to the gift drive stall. When the two ladies had their backs turned they swiped the remaining gift cards from the table and scurried off to the toy store. They spent the next hour sifting through the fifteen cards and selecting exactly which doll to buy for Emily and which toy truck Cameron would like best. Despite both being seniors in high school, Mack and Brady found traipsing around the toy store extremely fun. But the thing that really put a smile on their face was knowing that they'd helped out fifteen, unfortunate but nonetheless lovely children.

However, as they were checking out at the till, they realised that they still had a substantial about of money left over.

"Hey," Brady said, leaning down to whisper to Mack as they pushed their trolley, which was heaped with toys, towards the exit. "I have an idea for what we could do with the extra money," he grinned.

"I've always wanted to do this," Mack smiled as she and Brady signed off the company loans for as many employees at the toy store as their money would allow.

"Me too," Brady agreed, finishing his final signature with a 'Happy Holidays' for good measure.

"Thank you again, we all can't thank you enough," the woman behind the counter breathed, almost speechless at the generosity of these two teens.

"Well, this is what the holidays are about, aren't they?" Brady chuckled as Mack finished off her last signature.

"Yes, I suppose they are," the woman smiled before looking at each teen in turn. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," Mack and Brady chorused, flashing the girl a smile before going to deliver their gifts to the toy drive.

"You're right, this is what Christmas is all about," Mack said, looking up at Brady with a smile that she couldn't seem to wipe off her face.

"Yeah, I don't know about you but I feel pretty great right now," Brady said, slipping his free hand (that wasn't laden down with bags of presents) into Mack's.

"Me too," Mack sighed, resting her head on Brady's shoulder. "Merry Christmas, Brady."

"Merry Christmas, Mack."

 **Thank you so much for reading!**

 **I really hope that you liked t** **he final chapter and that you have a wonderful Christmas! Thank you so much for all the support that I've gotten with this story, it's been wonderful and I couldn't have asked for anything better. You're the best!**

 **Now, for the final Christmas question of the story, I want to know what you want for Christmas most this year. I know this sounds really cliche and you probably won't believe me but the thing that I want most this year is to know that I have made at least one person happy with my writing this year. It's stupid and probably sounds ridiculous to you but that's all I ever want when I put up a chapter: to make someone smile when they read it. So yeah, that's my Christmas wish, what's yours?**

 **Thank you so much for reading and reviewing, it means the world to me!**

 **Merry Christmas!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


End file.
